We all have heard of centers and how to make them work in our classrooms, but what do we do with the students who struggle to sit down for a period of time to work? How do we incorporate these kids into our centers? It can sometimes feel impossible!
I am going to review a few tips for ways you can teach staying in your seat during center time. It is important always to remember to stay consistent, do not give up, and assume competence with our students!
Curious about how to run centers in your self-contained classroom? Join the Simple Centers System course to learn more.
Offer Choices
This is a behavioral technique used a lot of time to give the students a sense of autonomy and choice. If the student does not like to sit in a specific chair, provide choices of different seating options for them. Maybe the student does not want to sit, because they don’t want to do the work at the table. You can offer them choices to complete the work. This way, they are still doing the work, but they have autonomy over how they are doing it. This may look like “do you want to complete the worksheet in pencil or purple crayon today?”
Below is my whole group area, but it shows some different flexible seating options that can also be offered at a center table.
Another way to offer choices during centers is to ask yourself what the goal of that center is. If the goal is for them to complete the worksheet or activity, then do they have to sit, or can they stand up? If the goal is to have them learn how to sit before completing the center activity, then here are some other options!
Shape the Behavior
Shaping a behavior involves reinforcing approximations of the target behavior until the desired behavior is reached. Here, our target behavior is sitting, specifically during center time. There are a few different ways this behavior can be shaped. It is important to start by looking at what the child currently can do. How can you specifically reinforce that to lead up to the larger behavior?
For example, if a child can get near the designated center, the reinforcement could be “good job getting close to the para center.” Next, the student gets to the designated center area, but they do not sit yet, so the praise could sound like “good job going to your center area.” Then slowly, they are being taught how to sit for one second, then continue providing that specific reinforcement until they are sitting for the designated period of time. It is important to always provide very specific praise and reinforcement, so they understand exactly what they are doing correctly. This would look like saying “good job sitting in your chair,” even if it was for a second, instead of just saying “good job.” This verbal praise is going to provide that instant reinforcement right when they show an approximation towards the desired behavior.
Change the Center
Okay, now this may sound odd. Why would you change what you are doing in the center, so the student will stay in their seat? Shouldn’t the student be able to follow directions based on what we, as the teacher, plan for the day?
Well, one reason your student may not be sitting at the center is that they are not interested or motivated enough. You could try incorporating some of the students’ interests into the lesson, such as doing addition using toy elephants for someone who loves animals, as opposed to teaching addition using a worksheet.
Is your student still learning how to sit for any activity at all? Find what they love, and replace that with the current center. Now, why would I let this child sit and play with Play-Doh when he is supposed to be learning? Great point … But the student will not start to learn academics until they can stay in their area to learn those academic goals. Start by having them sit doing what they love, and provide LOTS of positive, immediate, and specific praise for them sitting at the correct center. The cool thing here is that this is also another way of shaping the behavior! You can slowly start adding academics back in as they are learning to sit.
Why are They Not Sitting?
This is going to be the most important tip, in my opinion, in teaching how to stay seated during centers. Why don’t they want to sit down? What is the function of this behavior? No, this student may not have this on their behavior plan, so you may not have a predetermined function for this behavior. But every human behavior has a function behind it! If you are not familiar with the 4 functions of behavior (sensory, tangible, escape, and attention), pause, and go check out this blog! I also included an infographic below.
Function-Based Interventions
Now you have determined the function of why the student is not staying in their seat. It is time to put a function-based intervention in place. Here are just a few examples of some function-based interventions for a student who is not staying in their seat.
Escape: Utilize a first-then chart or token economy so they know what they have to do until they can escape the task, teach the student to ask for a break and honor it when they do
Sensory: Provide the student with a sensory choice board that includes some different sensory items that they can use while sitting (ex: a wobble stool, a fidget tool, a bouncy band for their chair, a weighted object, etc.)
Tanglibe: Utilize a first-then chart or token economy with a picture of what they are working towards so they can see what they have to do to earn that item
Attention: Provide LOTS of verbal praise for any attempt towards the desired behavior, utilize proximity control
Your Turn to Try!
Thanks for reading! I hope the blog will be able to help you in your own classroom with teaching your students how to stay in their seats during centers. Don’t forget to stay consistent, don’t give up, and always presume competence! Good luck trying out centers in your classroom this year 🙂
