Current Pediatric Research

Background: The home environment is the most important location in children’s lives and outdoor play has indisputable health benefits. Disconnection from nature has a strong link with childhood disorders such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and one reason for the alarming increase in incidence of ADHD may be the diminished availability and accessibility of outdoor opportunities to engage in multi-sensory nature play. Hence, this pilot study aims to redesign existing home garden to outdoor sensory garden-play space and tests sustained attention.

Methods: A 9-year-old male child with a diagnosis of ADHD received a total of 10 homes based- Sensory Garden (SG) plays intervention sessions over a 2-week period. Interventions occurred 5 days a week. Screening was done using ADHD rating scale and short sensory profile. Outcome, activity recording time was measured by noting the undistracted duration spent on writing and reading task. Mother maintained daily journal to record impressions of child’s participation in SG play and child’s progress at home and clinical activity participation was recorded in observation notes.

Results: Increase in Activity recording time, mother’s daily recordings and activity engagement in clinical setting suggested home-based sensory garden, a redesigned home garden space promotes positive play engagement.

Conclusion: We don't necessarily need to travel far to enjoy nature. These findings suggest that the available home garden space which has no playability element has the potential to be redesigned to sensory garden play space to facilitate outdoor multi-sensory nature-play with lasting influence on family as a whole.

Author(s): Silpa Voola Immanuel

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