Innovative Chair Provides Calming ‘Hug’
By Joel Brown, Boston Globe Correspondent | February 9, 2006
For some children, it’s attention deficit disorder. Or sensory integration issues. Or a form of autism. For others, it’s simple restlessness, the old ”ants in the pants.”
Now some area teachers have learned that a hug helps. To be specific, a HowdaHug — a slightly smaller version of the portable HowdaSeat, which Newburyport artist and businesswoman Leslie Aisner Novak has been selling for years.
The chair has no legs, just a back and seat made of wooden slats and brightly colored canvas that can be rolled up and carried under an arm. People use the HowdaSeat to get a better perch in informal situations, such as concerts in the park. Some say they’re good for back problems.
But last spring, Novak heard some news that gave her little business a whole new sense of purpose.
”I got a call from a parent who said that she wanted to buy two HowdaSeats for her son, that she had been told to call me, and that she had been given that information by the occupational therapist at River Valley Charter School” in Newburyport, Novak said.
Novak’s response: a bewildered ”Why?”
The parent explained that the River Valley staffer had been letting students use her own Howda chair in class, and that her son was benefiting from it. He had sensory integration problems that made him a restless, distracted student at times.
The HowdaSeat, his mother told Novak, helped him to become more focused in class ”because of its ability to wrap around him in a sort of hug, and apply pressure that would allow him to be contained. And he would feel calm from that containment.”
No one has done any scientific studies. But several area teachers who have tried the chairs in class, especially on students who have problems concentrating, say they’re almost always effective. They say the chair produces a better and perhaps happier student — and a better classroom environment for everyone.
”I was astounded, to tell you the truth,” Novak said.
She has been moved to tears by the stories she has heard. But she’s also happy to have found a potentially large new market for the product she first developed after finding an antique version of the chair in a neighbor’s trash pile 20 years ago. A slightly smaller version of the HowdaSeat, made at the same Maine factory, is now on the market for $60 as the HowdaHug. It is included in the new Abilitations educational catalog. And Novak is shipping 100 samples to teachers, other education specialists, and academics.
”It’s not just a marketing thing. I want to know if this seat works for these kids in this form,” she said.
One teacher who thinks it does is Mary Adamik, who teaches second grade in Hamilton. Her daughter works at Theater in the Open at Maudslay State Park, where some patrons sit on HowdaSeats that Novak donated years ago.
”This summer when I was sitting in one watching a performance and thinking about the class makeup I was going to have this year, I started thinking about how great they would work for some kids who need sensory motor help,” Adamik said. ”I have probably three or four that specifically have those kinds of educational need. But for 7- and 8-year-olds, I think everyone could benefit.”
She’s not the only teacher in her district, or even the first, to use the HowdaSeat to calm students, she said.
Gloria Sanford-Breton, an occupational therapist at River Valley, said she heard about the chairs at a gathering of occupational therapists in Manchester, N.H., where it was said they helped kids with sensory integration issues. As soon as she got home, she said, she bought a couple and brought them to school, and they were an immediate hit.
”They loved it — they didn’t want to give them up,” she said. ”And the teachers liked it because these are kids that could not stay seated in their own spot in circle. They would be rolling around on the floor, lying on other kids’ laps, bumping into them, all kinds of things. This was such a huge change for them, because now they could sit in circle in one spot. And the chair allows them to rock back and forth, so they’re getting a little bit of movement at the same time, but it’s not distracting everybody in the whole group. So for the first time for some of these kids, they were able to sit down and stay in circle for the whole time and sit down and do their work for the whole session.”
The school bought more, and at least a couple of parents bought their children their own Hugs on her recommendation.
One of those parents was Jonnie Lyn Evans of Newbury. She borrowed a seat last fall to try out with her 11-year-old son, a sixth-grader who, she says, is one of those ”ants in the pants” kids.
”I gave it to him and I was very open with him. I said, this is what I think. This is how I think it will help you. Give it a try,” Evans said. Her son’s feedback was that it did help him stay more focused in class, she said.
”He had a tremendous turnaround this year. It could just be his age, maturing, but he had a lot more focus this year than he’s had in the past,” she said.
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.
