SCHATKŌNA - FURNITURE
Individual Seating for ADHD children at Prabhat Foundation
This project is done as a part of our Design for Special Needs course in the 7th semester.
Displayed Project - Schatkona in 'The India Toy Fair 2021' under the category of Learning and Development in March 2021.
This project is done with and for the Prabhat Foundation, Ahmedabad.
For this project we were in touch with the foundation over digital media and this project is completely done remotely.
Prabhat Foundation
Prabhat foundation established in 2003 is situated in Ahmedabad and is serving better education to children with special needs. Their main aim is to help the children with special needs by finding a way to make them independent and carry out their daily tasks.
Today they have students from various spectrums of challenges both mentally and physically.
Brief - Individual seating for ADHD children in classrooms at Prabhat Foundation
ADHD - (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder)
We focused on one mental health disorder as our initial approach.
After secondary research on this disorder, we spoke with few teachers in special education schools and psychologist. And then mapped down the problems they suffer, the early stage signs and symptoms and rest of the stages they go through. Also the activities and schedules the child and teachers follow to improve their motor skills which improves their daily actions and movements.
Working with ADHD children: Teachers’ Perspective at Prabhat Foundation
With the teacher's perspective we got a lot of information from their past experiences with children and on field reality check. We got insights from the interviews we took remotely and through digital ethnography.
These are the insights from the interviews of the teachers at Prabhat Foundation.
Though there are many different spectrum mental disorder children present in Prabhat foundation, the child with CP (Cerebral Palsy) and ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) needs to have an undivided attention due to their dependancy and extreme hyper activity respectively.
As this project was conducted remotely and Prabhat Foundation was closed for students to enter, we decided to focus on teachers interaction with ADHD children.
Behavioural issues:
· Repetitive actions
· Throwing objects (Older children throw chairs / larger objects)
· Getting up and running to other classes
· Self-biting or pushing the child sitting next
· Put everything in their mouth
· Children need physical prompting
· ADHD children need to be seated separately but should not feel isolated from the group
· Current seating does not facilitate isolated seating in an efficient manner
Insights
· Child is seated on a table in the corner of the room. Teacher sits next to the child so that the child cannot get up and leave.
· The child needs a lot of physical prompting. And its is done by teachers and parents by holding the child’s hands and by doing the activities with them.
· Other children in the classroom are sensitised to the behaviour of ADHD children. They are encouraged to help out and socialise with ADHD child (pick up things when thrown and give it back to the child)
· Teachers have to sit with ADHD children throughout activities and physically prompt their actions
· Teachers have to seat ADHD children separately to ensure that they do not disturb the class and leave their seat
· Teachers need to teach parents how to facilitate activities during this lockdown period
Looking at the insights we chose to work with the sitting for ADHD child as Prabhat Foundation did not have any structure that could provide isolation for hyperactive children and yet include them into the classroom games and activities.
Also Prabhat Foundation had two main criteria for the design,
1. Cost Efficient
2. Easy Mobility
Prabhat Foundation has multiple classes divided based on age group. Each class has 8-10 students. Out of those 8-10 students approximately 2 students have ADHD. The group of students although of the same age group, have different needs
Each classroom in Prabhat has two kidney bean shaped tables. The two tables are joined together when group activities take place. The entire class including the teachers sit around the table.
When individual activities are given, children with ADHD need to be given constant attention to prevent them from getting distracted and disturbing the whole class
One of the kidney bean shaped table is aligned against the wall and the child is seated in the space between the wall and table. A teacher sits next to him to ensure that he cannot get up during the span of the activity.
Criteria for Design
Conceptualisation
Final Concept
Mockup
Concept Render
Toy Innovation Virtual Exhibition
India Toy Fair 2021
Schatkona in 'The India Toy Fair 2021' under the category of Learning and Development in March 2021.
No part of any project displayed herewith may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
