Evaluating the Use of Alternative Seating with Kindergarteners at Risk for Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

Characteristics of emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) include learning difficulties that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors and difficulties in building or maintaining interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers. Children with or at risk for an EBD often have a tendency to have negative experiences in school and engage in challenging behavior in the classroom including out-of-seat behavior. One possible antecedent manipulation, alternative seating, may reduce challenging behavior and involves exchanging the typical seating in classrooms for different types of seating options. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of stability stools and scoop rocker chairs on in-seat behavior and on-task behavior in classrooms with kindergarten students who engaged in challenging behavior and were at risk for EBD. All three participants demonstrated improvements in in-seat behavior using both types of alternative seating compared to a standard classroom chair. On-task behavior improved for all students but was variable for two students. Teachers indicated a preference for the stability stool, whereas results were mixed between the stool and the rockers for student preference.