ep 57 - A Surefire Nature-Based Therapy Treatment Activity (all you need is a rubber band!)
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Welcome to Therapy in the Great Outdoors, the podcast where we explore the business and practice of nature based pediatric therapy of all kinds. If you're an outdoor loving pediatric practitioner in the fields of occupational, physical, or speech therapy, social work, or mental health, This podcast will help you start and grow a successful nature based practice or program.
I am the ever honest, always a hundred percent real, you'll hear it all on this podcast, Dr. Laura Park Figueroa. I'm a pediatric OT with over 20 years of experience and I run a thriving nature based practice with profitable locations in two different states and multi six figures in revenue. I also host the free online community at Therapy in the great outdoors.
com to help you pursue your nature based therapy dreams too. Are you ready to take action on those dreams? Let's jump in.
Laura: Hello, and welcome back to the therapy in the great outdoors podcast. Today. I have a short little quickie episode for you . Because I realized that I wanted to share an activity. That sort of organically happened in one of our groups the other day. So we run mostly group services in my practice, outdoor kids, OT. And we had a group of four kids. And the main activity that we had planned for the day was Fort building. So we had a lot of supplies for them. We had material Material like actual fabric. That's the word I was looking for to like a pile of some pieces of fabric for them to use. We had clothespins we had. Twist ties. We had string. We had. Some long sticks nearby. We had a lot of different kind of loose parts and we set up the activity for them to build this Fort together. That all of them could fit inside, but none of the adults were allowed in. And so as the kids were doing this activity one of the things that I had in those loose parts with the twist ties and stuff was rubber bands. There were probably, I don't know, 10 or so rubber bands in there. And I was thinking they could use the rubber bands too. Tie together the sticks, as they were making a Fort. Or to hold fabric onto a stick or however they, they might decide to use it. And what happened was one of the children. Took a short stick that was nearby probably about 18 inches long. Maybe. And he tied the. Rubber band onto each end of the stick. So he cut the rubber band. And then tied the rubber band onto each end of the stick. And started using it as a bow and arrow. And as soon as that child had a bow and arrow made from a rubber band and a stick of his own doing, we did not say make a bow and arrow out of this. The other children were all very interested in it because they could see that it. Worked it basically worked to launch other sticks like arrows. And so they all ended up wanting to make one. It ended up being a really great. Activity where the child who had originally made it was able to help the children who were wanting to make one. We talked about, we used a knife to cut a rubber band, which some of the kids in this group, it's interesting. This group is a interesting group because most other groups that I have had are the kids are very interested. When I ask if they want to use a knife, their eyes get really big. And they're like, oh, these kids are a little bit afraid.
They, they are very hesitant to. I use tools of any kind. So that was a really fun thing that happened just to get out the knife and hold it while I use the knife to cut the rubber band was a big deal for one of the children. And then they all made these bow and arrows with rubber bands. That is what I want to tell you. First of all, the lesson here is that children will often come up with ways to use the materials we bring that we do not anticipate. And this is actually part of the Contigo approach to nature-based pediatric therapy that I developed. Contigo stands for connection and transformation in the great outdoors. The Contigo approach. Really hinges on this idea of using. Very minimal supplies and. Allowing the children freedom to use those supplies in a way that they would choose to do giving the children that agency.
The other thing is that if you need a very simple. Nature based therapy activity idea. Get some rubber bands. And use an area in the woods that has some sticks laying around on the ground. And maybe you could expand the activity by having them saw if you're allowed to where you run your services, saw some branches off the tree to choose a branch that or a stick. That would work for a bow and arrow. So that might be, there might be some problem solving there that you could add into the activity, but really it was so simple. One of the children even got a thicker stick that had some, it was broken on each end and he wedged, he didn't even cut his rubber band and tie it.
He just basically wrapped the rubber band around this kind of thick stick and pulled it into the grooves that were naturally on that stick on the top and bottom where the stick had broken. And that secured his rubber band in place. And then he was just pulling back the piece of rubber band and putting an extra stick in there as an arrow and then launching it and it was working. So it was cool to see how they all work together, do this. And we're all very engaged in it. They had a what did he call it at the end?
He called one of the kids. He called it a, not a competition, but a.
Let me think of the word. Oh, it was a ceremony. We ha we have to have our ceremony. He said at the end, So it was just the sweetest thing. They all were really into it. And I think it's a really easy thing that a lot of kids would enjoy. One way you could expand the activity a little bit, going back to that idea of the knife or using a saw to take branches off the tree is too. Actually use a, saw the saw that I love is called the pocket boy, silky. It's got a blue handle. It's on Amazon. You can find it. Pocket boy, silky S I L K Y . And it's a really small, full folding saw, but it's very sharp. And so it's very small and easy for children to use with supervision. Of course. And you can fold it up and it very easily fits inside of a backpack or other, a small bag that you may have with you for supplies. So the pocket boys silky was really great. And one way you could. Expand the activity or make it even more challenging for the kids is to saw a small notch into the wood. Into the stick that the child wants to use to make their bow and arrow. And then that would hold the rubber band in place a little bit at the top, but you don't even have to do that. Literally you guys, this is an idea that you can just have a handful of rubber bands and you can do this in almost any location. As long as there are sticks around. To be found and used. That's it for today. I just wanted to share that sweet story with you and share a very simple activity you can do with literally one item with you. I hope that is fun for you all. If you try it out, let us know inside of the therapy in the great outdoors community.
Wait a second, don't go yet. Do you want 120 ways that you can take your pediatric therapy work outdoors into nature? I wrote the free, big, huge list of nature based therapy activities just for you. The big huge list will give you quick ideas for nature based sessions. In the big huge list, there are activities for gross motor, fine motor, visual perceptual, executive function, balance, group collaboration, and team building.
social, emotional, and self regulation skills, as well as speech and language, and a whole section just for swing activities. So go on and get your free big, huge list. So you can get started taking kids outdoors or have some new ideas. If you've been doing this a while, you can download your free copy at therapyinthegreatoutdoors.
com slash list. So until next time, get outside, connect, reflect, and enjoy therapy in the great outdoors.
