Whether emotionally disturbed children are educated in special schools or are integrated into normal school populations, as the law now provides for, they often require certain adaptations of the normal classroom setting and procedures to function maximally and to prevent their sometimes uncontrollable behavior from affecting other students. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 stipulates that these accommodations must be made to make education accessible to these students (U. S. Dept. of Education, 2002). These accommodations are necessary so maximize the studentÆs comfort in the school environment and to so help maximize their learning potential. One such simple accommodation is the rearrangement of the normal classroom seating plan to adapt to the special needs of these children.
The research into this particular accommodation is scant, and no definitive studies are available, most likely because no two emotionally disturbed children are alike, and each one has special needs. Some children require isolation from the distractions around them, and this can be as simple as providing them with headphones (not attached to any input), or screening off their desk from those around them (UCHSC, 2003). The accommodations need to be tailored to the individual studentÆs needs.
A study by Tobin and Martin (2001) was carried out to determine a practical approach to identifying students at risk for emotional and behavior disorders, and determine interventions which could reduce this risk. It was carried out at six elementary schools in the Northwestern United States, and was part of a larger research project, ôUsing Teamwork to Plan Systematic and Functional Environments for Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders.ö One of the methods found to be effective in maintaining reasonable discipline in the classroom was to change the seating position of a student to a place where they would be less disruptive, and...