Classroom Structure

Helping your neurodivergent students feel safe and creating a comfortable environment for all.

Photo by Gautam Arora on Unsplash

In a previous post, I described the power of structure this way:

“When we structure our environment, it puts our world in order, and our brain doesn’t have to work as hard to make sense of things. The job of the brain is to make sense of the world around us (and to keep us alive, of course). The more chaotic our environment, the harder it is to make sense of it. Imagine walking into a kitchen you’re not familiar with to get a drink of water and to throw away a paper plate. At home, you know exactly where the glasses are, and you effortlessly find the trash. But in a new place, you have no idea where to look. This leaves you opening and closing cabinets at random, looking for cups and the garbage can. If the owner of the kitchen doesn’t come to help you, how do you feel in this situation? When this has happened to me, I felt annoyed, frazzled, frustrated, or tired. If you returned to a social gathering after your irksome search in the kitchen, how would you feel then? Would you feel a little off kilter? Would it be a little harder to focus on the conversation until you regained your equilibrium?

Now, imagine that the cabinets in this hypothetical kitchen are labeled. How would the labels change your experience of navigating an unfamiliar kitchen? Would you find what you needed more easily? How would you feel after easily locating a glass and the trash can? I know when I walk into a new space where everything is clearly labeled, I feel a tremendous sense of relief. I hate rifling through drawers and cabinets at random. Whenever I have to do that, I always wonder if someone’s going to think I’m snooping through their stuff!”

Photo by Naomi Hébert on Unsplash

We’ve probably all had the experience of feeling the awkwardness of wandering around a strange kitchen. Neurodivergent students experience something similar, but more extreme. Many of them live in fight or flight mode almost all the time. This is because their brains can’t interpret information from their senses very well. (For more information on this, you can check out this video.) When the brain can’t interpret sensory information very well, the world becomes chaotic and unpredictable.

Which students benefit from additional structure?