Nature Play from an Occupational Therapy Lens
It’s no secret that the great outdoors offers a plethora of opportunities to foster growth and development for children. A growing body of research shows that children today are spending more time indoors on screens and less time outdoors (1). When children play outdoors, they have the opportunity to build their motor skills, coordination, fine motor strength, vision, and sensory development. In nature, they are given more opportunities to think creatively, problem solve, and build resilience and self-confidence through risky play.
As an occupational therapist (OT), I work with children and families to determine what barriers are impacting the child’s ability to participate in daily tasks and activities. OTs across the field have expressed a growing concern for the rising number of children and youth who are not spending enough time outdoors. Children now spend between five to sevens hours sitting still in front of a screen (2). Fewer hours outside means that children are missing out on rich sensory and motor experiences that set the foundation for growth and development. As a result, children are demonstrating increased signs of emotional dysregulation, delayed social-emotional engagement, less resilience, and less coordinated children.
We OTs always have our “OT goggles” on! We are watching, analyzing, and problem-solving to complete what we call “task analysis.” We break down a given self-care task, play activity, or academic-related task to determine what skills a child needs to complete the given task. These skills range from cognitive skills, fine and gross motor skills, sensory processing, social-emotional skills, and executive functioning skills. Let’s dive into an outdoor play observation to learn more about the skills children are building by simply stepping outside to play…
“Throw rocks!”, “leaves!” , “cones!” exclaims a boy as he points to the nature trail. Although he has difficulty with expressive language, he is highly motivated when outdoors which increases his drive to communicate his interests.
As he walks along the nature trail, he reaches to the ground to pick up pine cones, acorns, leaves, rocks, and sticks. With each movement, he is placing his head out of alignment which activates his sensory vestibular system. The vestibular sense is located in our inner ear and uses gravity to sense spatial orientation and movement. This system is responsible for maintaining balance during movement and allows us to know where our body is in space. With each hop, leap, reach, and spin, the boy is putting his vestibular system to work which improves his balance, coordination, and muscle tone.
The boy continues along the path and scans his environment for other treasures. As he looks ahead to the trail and shifts his gaze back to the ground, he practices convergence and divergence of his eye muscles. This eye movement is the same skill children use when looking at the whiteboard in class then back to their paper,an important skill that helps us work on using our eyes together as a team.
The boy looks from left to right, up to the sky and down to the ground. The outdoors provides endless visual opportunities to strengthen muscles of the eyes that will help with reading, writing, and visual tracking of objects. Additionally, by being outside, the child is able to explore in natural lighting which helps develop the visual system and reduce the risk of myopia (nearsightedness). Research shows that an increase of 1 hour per day of outdoor time results in a 45% reduction in the occurrence of myopia (4).
He spots the creek ahead and runs towards the sand. He sits down on a log to take off his socks and shoes, strengthening his core to maintain his balance on the log. As he submerges his hands into the sand and mud to dig for rocks, he activates his tactile sensory system. Exploring various textures provides him with the tools to practice discriminating and describing different textures. He digs in the sand and cups his hands to make a “ball” of sand, strengthening the arches of his hands which will help prepare his hands for drawing, coloring, and writing. He manipulates and pinches small pebbles, strengthening fine motor dexterity and grasp for pencil grasp.
He collects rocks of different sizes - some larger, heavier rocks, and some smaller, more delicate pebbles. He activates his proprioceptive sensory system and practices grading the amount of force he must exert to pick up and toss each rock into the creek. Our proprioceptive system receives input from the muscles and joints about body position, weight, pressure, and stretch. When we engage in activities that compress our joints or stretch our muscles, we improve our body awareness and muscle tone. (Activities that provide proprioception are also called “heavy work” activities and are a great tool to help children calm down and regulate their nervous systems.)
With each “kerplunk”, the boy uses his auditory and visual sensory systems to discriminate a “big splash” from a “little splash.” The water splashes in all directions, and he is intrinsically motivated to make the next splash bigger than the next. He picks up larger rocks, building shoulder, elbow, wrist and grasping strength with each movement.
He picks up a stick and uses it as a writing tool to make circular “targets” on the ground, addressing his visual motor development, grasp, and visual perceptual skills. After using the stick, he decides to break the stick into smaller pieces, practicing bilateral motor coordination and fine motor strength with each break.
As it is time to go, the boy puts his socks and shoes back on. He has worked up a sweat and takes a sip of water to cool down. He says goodbye (for now) to his outdoor treasures and makes his way back to the trail. As he walks back, he is more alert, yet calm.
Nature affords us with so many opportunities that we often overlook. Our children are innately driven to run, jump, climb, dig, splash, collect, and build. Let’s take more time to give them the space and freedom to play and explore – you’d be surprised by all the skills they are building!
Resources:
Bento, G., & Dias, G. (2017). The importance of outdoor play for young children's healthy development. Porto Biomedical Journal, 2(5), 157-160.
Figueroa, L.P. (2020, August). Nature-Based Occupational Therapy for Children with Developmental Disabilities. SIS Quarterly Practice Connections: A supplement to OT Practice. American Occupational Therapy Association. Vol 5, Issue 3. P.2-4.
Hanscom, A.J. (2016). Balanced and Barefoot. [United States]. New Harbinger Publications.
Xiong et al. (2017). Time Spent in Outdoor Activities in Relation to Myopia Prevention and Control: A Meta-analysis and Systemic Review. Acta Ophthalmol. 95(6):551-566.