Abstract

This research aimed to study physical environments which influence the development of autistic children, as very few studies have clarified the characteristics of such physical environments. The research question for the present study is: What conditions of physical environment can help reduce the impairment in processing sensory information from the perception of visual stimuli among autistic children? This research study investigated the internal environments of two special education centers in the Educational Service Area in Bangkok. Participants included forty-six subjects who were diagnosed with autism. The study was based on post-occupancy evaluation, survey, and observation. Independent variables were physical environments which comprised the complexity of decorative pictures; mobile hanging; distances between the seats and the openings and the shelves; sizes of the openings; proportions between the sizes of openings and the room sizes; outside views seen through the openings; and area partition. The dependent variables were the autistic children’s behaviors in the classroom. T-test and One-way ANOVA were employed for data analysis. The findings revealed that physical environments could reduce autistic children’s behaviors of moving away from the activities and looking at other things rather than the activities. This could be done through the following environmental factors: the use of pictures for room decoration, mobile hanging, distances between the seats and the doors, distances between the seats and the windows, the sizes of the openings, the proportions between the sizes of the openings and the room sizes, the outside view seen through the openings, and room’s partition.