Running

Head: THE EFFECTS OF PREFERENTIAL SEATING, FLEXIBILITY,

FOCUSED INSTRUCTION AND INCREASED STRUCTURE ON A STUDENT WITH
AUDITORY PROCESSING DISORDER

The effects of preferential seating, flexible time, focused instruction, and increased
structure on a student with auditory processing disorder
Miriam Franco
Loyola Marymount University

Running Head: THE EFFECTS OF PREFERENTIAL SEATING, FLEXIBILITY,

FOCUSED INSTRUCTION AND INCREASED STRUCTURE ON A STUDENT WITH
AUDITORY PROCESSING DISORDER
Introduction:

This action research project focuses on the effects of preferential seating, flexible time,
focused instruction, and increased structure on a student with auditory processing disorder. The
student that this study will focus is in Kindergarten at a Catholic elementary school in a low
socioeconomic area of south central Los Angeles. The student is the youngest of two and the
older brother is in fifth grade at the same school. The student has demonstrated positive behavior
in the classroom consistently, turned in homework regularly, and has excellent fine motor skills,
which shine through in her neat coloring and handwriting skills. She is one of a few students that
is almost always on task and needs very little to no redirection in the area of behavior. She never
raises her hand to answer or ask any questions except when she needs to go to the restroom.
After speaking to her mother about her lack of participation in class discussions she informed
that she is not shy at home, that she was actually quite the opposite. After this conversation, I
noticed that the student was more talkative with me as well as with a few of the girls in the class
but only during recess or lunch breaks.
Through informal observations, formative formal and informal assessments, it was clear
that the student was performing far below her peers specifically in the area of reading. She knew
almost all of the letter names but only thirteen letter sounds. She has great difficulty answering
comprehension questions during story time and I notice her attention trails off quite often. The
immediate intervention that my teachers aide and I implemented for the student was to spend
more one on one time with the student during independent work time to ensure she was receiving
enough support. Because the student is so quiet, at the very beginning of the year, I did not know
if she was struggling with a task unless I physically walked over to her to check. I often
reminded the class as a whole, to ask questions if they needed help and I assured them that it is

Running Head: THE EFFECTS OF PREFERENTIAL SEATING, FLEXIBILITY,

FOCUSED INSTRUCTION AND INCREASED STRUCTURE ON A STUDENT WITH
AUDITORY PROCESSING DISORDER
ok to be confused about things. It took a few months but eventually the student felt more

comfortable raising her hand when she needed help. I referred her to the Title I reading specialist
and after she was tested the reading specialist informed me that she indeed qualified for
additional intervention for reading. She is pulled out three times a week for 45-minute periods.
Additionally, when the class began covering phoneme segmentation, I came up with a
strategy called worm arm to help the student separate the sounds in CVC (consonant vowel
consonant) words. The students are to touch their shoulder and say the beginning sound, touch
the inside of their elbow and say the middle sound, and touch their wrist and say the ending
sound. This kinesthetic strategy has helped the student feel more confident with phoneme
segmentation.
Baseline Data:
This action research project focuses on the effects of preferential seating, flexible time,
focused instruction, and increased structure on a student with auditory processing disorder. In the
classroom, I provide visual aids, preview and review tasks, give her preferential seating, provide
flexibility during tasks, provide focus instruction by using varied intonation and alert her when
she gets distracted, provide structured routines, spend one on one time with her during
independent work time and of course I celebrate her successes. When she feels safe and I
encourage and praise her for her efforts, she smiles and is more willing to participate. To help
her with reading comprehension, she sits directly in front of me and I do frequent checks for
understanding to ensure she is on task. I ask her to help me figure out who the characters in the
story are to help build her confidence. Close readings help the student as well as the rest of the
class gain a deeper and more meaningful understanding of the story. I am always very animated
and use varied intonation to catch the students attention and make the story more enjoyable and

Running Head: THE EFFECTS OF PREFERENTIAL SEATING, FLEXIBILITY,

4
FOCUSED INSTRUCTION AND INCREASED STRUCTURE ON A STUDENT WITH
AUDITORY PROCESSING DISORDER
memorable for the students. I ask them to be a part of it by making certain hand movements or
sound effects to help them internalize words, events or characters in the story.
In the Title I reading specialists first benchmark assessments, the student performed very
low. However, when I informally asked the student to segment the word sat she was able to do
it with more confidence and success when I prompted her to use the worm arm strategy. I
mentioned this to the reading specialist and we both agreed that using the kinesthetic worm
arm strategy may have made the difference between her benchmark assessment and my
informal assessment, in which she experienced a higher success rate. Visual cues have proven to
make the student feel more confident when completing tasks.
For a baseline the teacher assessed the student on various reading-related tasks and
graded them using M for meets expectations independently, X for demonstrates emerging
skills and T for greatly needs improvement.
Date

Type of Assessment

Score

Grade

September 2, 2014

14/26
0/26

T
T

September 11, 2014

Letter Recognition
Letter Sound
Recognition
DIBELS Next, Title 1

FSF: 4 (Goal: 10) LNF: 2

October 5, 2014

Letter name recognition

21/26

X-

October 6, 2014

Letter sound recognition

13/26

November 5, 2014

Matching pictures to
beginning letter/sound
Oral Reading
Comprehension
Assessment
DIBELS Next, Title 1

23/25

X+

0/2

FSF: 26 (Goal: 30)

LNF: 33
PSF: 7
NWF/CLS: 35(Goal 17)

X
M
T
M

November 20, 2014

January 21, 2015

Running Head: THE EFFECTS OF PREFERENTIAL SEATING, FLEXIBILITY,

FOCUSED INSTRUCTION AND INCREASED STRUCTURE ON A STUDENT WITH
AUDITORY PROCESSING DISORDER
Cycle2 Intervention and New Benchmark:

This action research project focuses on the effects of preferential seating, flexible time,
focused instruction, and increased structure on a student with auditory processing disorder. There
are several interventions that I put into place such as visual aids, previewing and reviewing tasks,
preferential seating, flexibility during tasks, focused instruction by using varied intonation and
alerting her when she gets distracted, structured routines, additional time with reading specialist
every week, and one on one time with her during independent work time. I did not choose one
single intervention because all of these could be done together being that some are as simple as
using varied intonation or preferential seating. The combination of interventions proved to be
successful based on the new benchmark scores and my informal observations in the classroom.
My special populations focus student sits front and center on the carpet as this gives me
easy access to her as far as making sure she is engaged, I often have to whisper her name and
nudge her to refocus. She is always very responsive to my redirection and will focus her
attention on the task at hand. While she tries her best to be attentive, she rarely raises her hand to
participate so I make an effort to call on her on questions I sense she would feel comfortable
with. Using varied intonation helps keep her attention and it is something I do for all of the
students all day. I feel that teachers are a lot like actors, we have to put on a good show so to
speak in order to make sure the students are engaged and having fun in their learning.
I review tasks to make sure my student feels confident in what I am asking her to do. This
one on one time is also used for any clarification and it gives her a boost. Another way I aim to
support my student is through the use of visual aids. I use Google search or even draw pictures
on the board to review vocabulary. When we are reading stories aloud I ask her questions that
could be answered through details in the illustrations because I know she focuses a lot of her

Running Head: THE EFFECTS OF PREFERENTIAL SEATING, FLEXIBILITY,

6
FOCUSED INSTRUCTION AND INCREASED STRUCTURE ON A STUDENT WITH
AUDITORY PROCESSING DISORDER
attention on the pictures. I do stop throughout the text and make an additional effort to point out
key details in the text. I have explained to the student that she must also make an effort to listen
to the story carefully, not just look at the pictures.
The instructional aide in my classroom sits at a table with the students who need more
attention and she has my focus student sitting right next to her. This time is precious being that it
is where we can really see how much she can do on her own before she needs our prompting and
support. In the past few weeks I have seen progress, as she has demonstrated more confidence
when completing tasks. She has also begun to see the reading specialist four times a week
instead of four, which has been greatly beneficial to her for her reading skills. Her reading
teacher has shared that she is testing on grade level for a few skills such as non-sense fluency.
She shared that she is still having difficulty with phoneme segmentation and this is something
that I have noticed as well. She does very well on her CVC spelling tests but when presented
with a word that she has not previewed substantially she is often unable to separate the sounds in
the word. This is the reason why the reading specialist added one on one time with her. She is
working very specifically on these skills and we are hoping the extra time will help.
Overall, I have noticed noticeable progress in my students math and reading abilities.
The mother informed me that she continues to read to her and with her at home on a daily basis.
The interventions set in place will continue and hopefully we will see more good results. The
most important change I have noticed in my student is definitely her added confidence. She has
begun to make small attempts to participate and this makes me the most proud. I celebrate her
success and am gentle with her through the struggles. Finally, I want the student to enjoy coming
to school and I am aware of the huge role that I play in order to make sure she feels safe,
confident and appreciated in my classroom.

Running Head: THE EFFECTS OF PREFERENTIAL SEATING, FLEXIBILITY,

7
FOCUSED INSTRUCTION AND INCREASED STRUCTURE ON A STUDENT WITH
AUDITORY PROCESSING DISORDER
In Figure 2 I listed some of the assessments that were given to her at the beginning of the
action research project with the most recent scores. She has improved a bit in all areas except for
the area of phone segmentation.
Figure 2
Date

Type of Assessment

Score

Grade

February 2, 2015

Letter Recognition
Letter Sound
Recognition
Matching pictures to
beginning letter/sound
Oral Reading
Comprehension
Assessment
Phoneme Segmentation

26/26
22/26

M+
M-

25/25

M+

1/2

X-

2/6

February 10, 2015

February 19, 2015
March 3, 2015

Discussion and Conclusion:

I am pleased with the results of the interventions set in place for my focus student. The
combination of preferential seating, previewing lessons, focused instruction, visual aides,
flexible time, and structured routines have all affected her positively in the classroom. The most
valuable intervention, or at least the one that I think has had the biggest impact has been the
additional focused instruction with the reading specialist. She works on very specific skills with
her and the student has demonstrated to feel more comfortable in one on one situations. She is
shy and rarely speaks up so this time serves to really hone in on her needs as a learner. This led
me to increase the time that my classrooms instructional aide spends with her.
The student follows routines well and is self-sufficient in the classroom. Sometimes she
does not complete her work on time but she is always on task and completes work with quality in
mind. She does not leaving work unfinished, which I is as a good quality to have. I make an
effort to provide time during the day for her to finish something in case she needs a bit of extra

Running Head: THE EFFECTS OF PREFERENTIAL SEATING, FLEXIBILITY,

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FOCUSED INSTRUCTION AND INCREASED STRUCTURE ON A STUDENT WITH
AUDITORY PROCESSING DISORDER
time. I will continue to preview and review lessons because it this structure alleviates any anxiety
and makes her feel more comfortable. She is very shy and often will not ask for help unless I ask
first.
I sit her in the front and center of the carpet and at the tables in order to monitor her focus
and attention during lessons. The visual aides help not only her but the rest of the students and it
keeps their interest. The students especially enjoy looking at pictures when I review new
vocabulary words. My students are all five to six years old and all have had different experiences
in life and I cannot assume they all know what a cottage looks like. That is just one example of a
word that we looked up recently. When I related it to Snow White many of them were able to
make more connections.
Overall, I am content with the results of this action research project. I will continue to
focus my interventions on helping her with phoneme segmentation, as it is a vital skill to have
before she enters first grade. Both the reading instruction teacher and I meet once a month in
order to develop interventions to help those students that need a little more focused instruction.
We will be in contact to come up with a few interventions for my student and mother will be
made aware so she can support her at home.

Running Head: THE EFFECTS OF PREFERENTIAL SEATING, FLEXIBILITY,

FOCUSED INSTRUCTION AND INCREASED STRUCTURE ON A STUDENT WITH
AUDITORY PROCESSING DISORDER
References

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Moore, D.R. (2011). The Diagnosis and Management of Auditory Processing Disorder.
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