15: Research Says: Outdoor Education Supports Autistic Children Making Friends, Taking Risks, & Learning About Nature
Kids love getting messy. They love playing outside. And when you provide them with opportunities for safe risk-taking and exploration, the learning outcomes and success that follow will prove invaluable to their development. This is true for all children, and today’s research takeaway episode gives further proof of the benefits for autistic children.
In this small scale study, four autistic children attend forest school, and then the children, along with their parents and teachers, provide feedback on the experience. And there are some very exciting qualitative outcomes.
This research brings up an interesting idea: how we can implement videos as a strategy in treatment sessions. It also supports the practices we are implementing as nature-based therapists: getting messy, risk-taking, learning about nature, and making friends in a safe space.
We’ll discuss:
Why this study specifically centers the voices of the autistic children who participated
How the researchers used videos to show the full range of experience for each child
Why they got multiple sets of data responses (verbal, non-verbal, visual) and how they analyzed
The common themes that both parents and educators agreed on as outcomes they witnessed
The common themes in the children’s responses
How all the children depicted positive emotions when drawing their experience
Takeaways from this study for nature-based therapy
Resources from this episode:
I found a free, publicly available link to the article!
If you're ready to take the next step in this adventure, join our free Therapy in the Great Outdoors Community at therapyinthegreatoutdoors.com. The TGO community is a private space just for nature based pediatric practitioners. We have loads of resources there to support you as you start or grow a nature based practice or program.
If you’re serious about taking your nature-based practice to the next level, come join the Business Bedrocks Group Coaching Program in The Business Hive. You'll get clarity & confidence to grow a profitable and personally fulfilling business that runs on auto-pilot as much as possible.
Are you a pediatric therapist interested in taking your work with children out into nature? The ConTiGO Approach Online Course will open for registration soon: visit www.ConTiGOapproach.com to join the waitlist.
Welcome to the TGO Podcast!
The Therapy in the Great Outdoors podcast is about the business & practice of nature-based pediatric therapy of all kinds. If you are an outdoor-loving practitioner in the field of occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech-language pathology, social work, behavioral health, mental health counseling, or outdoor education THIS is for you! You'll learn how you can take your work with children outdoors into nature. We'll cover exactly what it takes to run a successful and profitable nature-based practice that changes children's lives (and yours!) forever.
