Nature as a balm for autistic children

Erin Laraway and four of her students were pulling radishes from raised grow beds in a vest pocket garden nestled to the side of the Brooklyn Occupational Training Center, a public high school for teens with special needs in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn on a Friday morning recent.

“How many radishes do you have there, Javier?” Ms Laraway asked an 18 year old rocking back and forth. It “stimulated,” a repetitive behavior that many people with autism use to calm themselves down. He held up five fingers.

“Good job,” replied the professor. “How do you feel working in the garden today? She asked, holding out a tablet-like communication device. Javier pointed to the icon of a boy labeled “proud”.

The students “have a great sense of accomplishment in the garden, of actually accomplishing something,” Ms. Laraway said. “Javier is going to pick up the wheelbarrow, or water the plants without being asked, while inside the classroom he even has trouble removing the cap from a water bottle. I am always amazed at what he is able to do here.

Ms. Laraway is not trying to cure her students of autism, a neurological disease that affects one in 54 children in the United States, to varying degrees, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But she hopes the relaxed atmosphere in the garden will help her students, many of whom fall on the extreme extreme of the autism spectrum, improve their verbal and social skills as well as prepare them for employment after graduation. of their diploma.

It seems to help. Her students interact more with their peers in the garden than they do in the classroom, Ms. Laraway reported.

“Children with autism don’t get enough of the outdoors,” said Temple Grandin, professor of animal science at Colorado State University, who has autism. “They’re stuck in the basement playing video games.”

Studies show that children with autism can be particularly prone to screen addiction. It has only gotten worse since Covid-19 forced schools to close, observed Dr Grandin.

But now that summer camps and other outdoor facilities serving children with autism are reopening, some autism experts are hoping that trend may start to reverse.

“In the natural world, the nervous system has a chance to decompress and restore itself,” said Michelle Brans, who runs Counting Butterflies, a children’s therapy center near Toronto. “This is especially important for children with autism, because their sensory systems can be overloaded much faster.”

Nature is not only relaxing for young people with autism, it is also an exciting place for them, Ms. Brans said. The same ability to focus on one thing that can make them addicted to video games allows them to focus on the smallest details – the sound of a single insect, the texture of a blade of grass. Of course, the spectrum of autism is wide and each child’s needs and strengths vary.

A boy Ms. Brans worked with, delighted with everything water-related – the feel on his hands, watching how the water moves and swirls. She encouraged her parents to place water bottles, fountains and small ponds around their house.

“We used the water as a bridge, a tool to make him feel more comfortable in the world,” she said. When the boy arrived in high school, he organized a club to discuss water issues – a big step for a child who previously had difficulty building relationships with others.

Another natural helper that helps many children with autism is working with animals, said Dr Grandin: “I don’t think in words, I think in pictures. Animals don’t think in words. They live in a sensory world. Some children with autism can really identify with animals for this reason.

An increasingly common form of natural therapy for children on the spectrum is working with horses.

Caitlin Peters, assistant professor at the Temple Grandin Equine Center at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, conducted a small pilot study that suggested spending time with horses decreased irritability and hyperactivity in young people with autism and increased their communication level.

Learning to train dogs also appears to help some autistic children build relationships with people, according to a study published in March in the journal Autism.

One place that has had good results working with a variety of animals is Elijah’s Retreat, a 50-acre ranch near Tyler, Texas, offering hikes, fishing, and horseback riding for children with autism and their families. families.

“These kids are very tactile,” said Cheryl Torres, director of Elijah’s Retreat. “They want to feel the horse’s legs, check their teeth, pick their noses. They try to understand: how does he move, how does he walk, where are his muscles?

She said it was worth it: “For children with autism, the wilderness is a place where they can be themselves without having to conform to the expectations of others – in this world which can be a scarce commodity.”

For some people with autism, spending quiet time alone in nature can be a spiritual transformation, said Gonzalo Bénard, art photographer and therapist from Cascais, Portugal. Mr. Bénard did not speak until he was 7 years old. “Autism has given me a wonderful world of silence and introspection,” he said.

As a young man, Mr. Bénard studied the ancient Bon religion with a shamanic teacher from Tibet. In some traditional cultures, autism has been called “the shaman’s disease,” Benard explained, because people on the spectrum were believed to have increased access to the inner world and to be natural healers.

He trained in yoga and meditation and spent hours “lying in the woods listening to Earth,” he said.

“It gave me a deeper connection with nature and also with other people.”

How to help children connect with nature

Dongying Li, an assistant professor at Texas A&M University who studies landscape and health, suggested being flexible and letting children enjoy unstructured play in nature in their own way. “Enjoy a puddle, tree, pocket playpen, or even a photo of a garden and plan for incremental steps, starting where you feel most comfortable.” feel comfortable, ”she said.

Other suggestions, which can be adapted as needed:

• Allow children to find their place safely in nature, suggested Mr. Bénard. If the parents have a garden or a plot of land, build them a wooden house, a safe shelter, where they can go and be quiet.

• Look around and observe different species, Ms. Laraway said. Families can make fun of it by counting the number of birds or butterflies they see each day.

• Let children play freely without being directed, suggested Ms. Galbraith. Allow them to spend hours staring at a tree trunk if that’s what they want to do. Give them space and time to experience nature in their own way. If they live far from nature, set up a bird feeder or garden on the windowsill.

• Plan a trip to a local ranch to pick apples, strawberries, pumpkins or fresh vegetables, Ms. Torres said. They can enjoy treasure hunts or stargazing. Keep exposing your child to new things so they can find the things that really turn them on.