Date of Graduation

5-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Interior Design

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Interior Design

Advisor/Mentor

Webb, Jennifer

Committee Member/Reader

Lee, Jisun

Committee Member/Second Reader

Schaefer-Whitby, Peggy

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a growing disorder across the world. ASD affects around 1 in every 68 children in the United States (Block, 2018). This disorder results in significant social, intellectual, and behavioral changes within a child, and create challenges for a child with ASD to learn and develop like children without ASD. No two cases of ASD are alike which is why it is called a spectrum disorder. This adds an extra challenge to designing spaces for children with ASD to inhabit and thrive. These children frequently suffer from sensory processing deficits in which they have a hard time processing different stimuli happening within an environment. In an ideal situation, a space would be designed to accommodate each unique symptom while also helping build a tolerance for other stimuli in the environment.

What are some of the main characteristics of children with ASD? What is the best way to define the severity of these characteristics? What types of interventions can take place to help manage these characteristics without completely controlling the environment? What is the best way to test the effectiveness of these interventions?

This project will identify some of the key characteristics that a child with ASD expresses. Environmental color, hues placed in the environment on architectural surfaces or through the addition of interior elements, will be discussed in the context of antecedent intervention, or interventions that are put in place before a behavior occurs to either reinforce it or discourage it. These interventions are both additive and subtractive in nature. The result of this project will be a resource brochure with different design categories that parents can use to find different environmental interventions that have to do with the corresponding categories.

Keywords

Interior Design, Special Education, Environmental Design, Classroom Design, Residential Design

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