Why provide Speech Therapy in Nature?

Nature provides a rich environment that has positive benefits for parent-child relationships and child language development. By providing Speech and Language therapy outdoors, we harness the power of nature to support children's language and speech growth, play and relationship skills, emotional regulation, and early literacy development.

For children with language and speech delays or disorders, receiving rich oral language input and having ample opportunities to hear and use language is crucial. Speech and language therapy up skills parents and teachers with strategies to provide this extra language support throughout the day in a way that is most beneficial to their little one. Conducting therapy outdoors can make it easier for both the parent and child to maintain attention and take on new strategies, and provides a rich landscape for language development full of various textures, colours and shapes. When outdoors, away from the distractions and constraints of indoor environments, children and parents are more likely to engage in longer, more connected conversations (Cameron-Faulkner et al., 2018). Nature time provides parents and children with a unique opportunity to truly attune to one another - to see, hear, and respond in a manner that best supports the child's speech and language development needs. These reciprocal interactions help create strong parent-child relationships and promote healthy brain development (Zimmerman et al., 2009).

Spending time in nearby nature leads to improvements in mental health and emotional regulation for children, including those who are neurodiverse. We know that when a child is unregulated, learning becomes more challenging, and language learning becomes nearly impossible. Providing therapy in natural settings can help children feel more calm, focused, and ready to engage in learning. This emotional regulation is essential for successful speech and language therapy, as it allows children to better attend to and participate in the learning process.

References

Cameron-Faulkner, T., Melville, J., & Gattis, M. (2018). Responding to nature: Natural environments improve parent-child communication. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 59, 9-15.

Zimmerman, F. J., Gilkerson, J., Richards, J. A., Christakis, D. A., Xu, D., Gray, S., & Yapanel, U. (2009). Teaching by listening: The importance of adult-child conversations to language development. Pediatrics, 124(1), 342-349

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