The Effect Of Classroom Seating Arrangement On The Social Competency Of Autistic Preschoolers

This study investigated the effects of classroom seating arrangement on social competency for a sample of 12 autistic preschoolers at two daycare centers. Specifically, this study sought to determine whether pivotal social communication skills would significantly increase when autistic participants are seated at a table as compared to other designated spaces in the classroom. Subjective data was collected in this study through teacher assessments of the children using the Social Responsiveness Scale. Objective measures included naturalistic observations, which were conducted over the course of 6 weeks - 3 weeks at each daycare. Results of the objective data collection from all participants (N=12) revealed that social competency would be significantly increased when autistic children are seated at a table as compared to not at a table. Specifically, across all participants there was a significant difference in facial expression and affect (p=.003), non-verbal mannerisms (p=.045), voice volume (p less than .001), and eye gaze (p=.011). There were no significant differences in the perseveration of topic scores between participants at the tables and not at the tables. The changes in appropriateness of behavior were significant at the 0.05 level. Subjective data found that participants, on average, fell on the mild to moderate range on the autism spectrum. Results also show that the variations in the data between participants were significant across all five sociocommunicative behaviors examined in this study. The data also shows that the type of conversational partner and type of activity do not play a significant role in increasing social competency. The data further shows that there is no significant effect on interaction behaviors in classroom spaces other than at tables. However, there is a significant difference between table types in terms of which arrangement yields a higher frequency of appropriate behaviors. A significant difference 3 was seen in the level of appropriateness when participants were seated at the crescent, more semi-circular table.