Transcript: Claire Harbison

Listen as Ms. Harbison discusses some setting accommodations she has provided in her classroom to help Emma be more successful in participating in learning activities and in completing her work in a timely manner (time: 3:12).

Emma has sensory processing disorder. She is very hyperactive in the classroom and has a hard time regulating her behaviors, has a hard time controlling her body and where it is in relation to other students. So that poses a challenge in the classroom.

She has a table by herself where she can get her work done. That way, she’s not distracted by other students, by what they’re doing or what they’re not doing. She can just focus on her work. When we’re sitting on the rug, she is sitting really close to me, or any teacher. I can reach out a hand to put on her shoulder to remind her to sit on her bottom or give her a gentle touch to remind her to put her hands in her lap. I don’t always require her to sit on her bottom. My other students, that’s the rule when we are on the rug, but with Emma she needs to be moving around. She’s still listening, she’s still learning, but she might be sitting on her knees or something. We also have a basket of what she calls “fidgets”—just different things that she can hold in her hands that are squishy or stretchy or soft or things that she can manipulate with her hands to keep her hands busy while she’s sitting, still learning, still listening, but keeping her hands occupied rather than reaching out and playing with her neighbor’s shoe or something.

She also keeps a water bottle at her desk that she can go and get a drink to calm herself down or regulate her behaviors. She has a tent that we use at quiet time. She just goes and pops out her little tent, and it’s a small, confined space where she’s free to do whatever she would like to as long as she’s quiet. That way, she’s not distracted by other students, and they are not distracted by her moving around in her own little space, which she enjoys. She has a study carrel, a little box that folds out that sits at her desk while she’s doing her work, again a way to cut down on the distractions. She has peer mentors, another student whose hand she can hold in the hallway to help remind her to walk in the hallway, to keep her hands to herself. Those students know how to help Emma move through the hallway to cut down on unwanted behaviors. At the beginning of the year, she was able to sit for three minutes, tops. Now she’s sitting for ten to fifteen minutes. She’s able to sit. She’s able to get her work done. Her work is a lot neater. Her focus has improved. She’s able to close herself off from the distractions of kindergarten around her. Her schoolwork has definitely improved. She really has come a long way with these accommodations. I think it’s made me a better teacher because now I’m more in tune with all my other students’ needs.