On 27th May, Stefan Geider, GP and director of
the Camphill Wellbeing Trust, will run the Edinburgh Marathon. He hopes that friends and colleagues from across
the UK and further afield will sponsor him
and help raise funds for The Nature Nurture Project. This is all part of a national fund raising
effort that Camphill Wellbeing Trust launched in March, The Nature Nurture
Fund, which aims to raise £150,000 this year to support this project.
The Nature Nurture Project works with some of the UK’s most
vulnerable children. Although the project cannot change a child’s life
circumstances, it can help them develop the inner fortitude required to bounce
back from the adversity that they will face.
Nature Nurture helps some of the growing numbers of children from disadvantaged
families affected by substance misuse, alcohol abuse and domestic
violence.
Nature Nurture offers children and young people time and space in
natural environments, consistent nurturing, attuned adult/child interactions
and free play. This is a powerful formula that can support and promote the child’s
health and wellbeing. Time outside in nature with adults that are tuned into
their explorations and interests has a positive impact on the child’s motivation
to learn and boosts their experience of themselves as a person who is valued
and loved. Simple acts like this can make a huge difference and help lead a child
out of the cycles of vulnerability and dependency that have blighted their
families over two, three or more generations.
Nature Nurture is an approach that has developed from the insights
gained through Waldorf education and Camphill social pedagogy and through
applying current research into resilience, trauma and neurological development. It began in Camphill over three years ago
when local family centres and schools sought the support of Camphill for some
of their youngest clients. A pilot
scheme run by our kindergarten teacher proved so successful that money was
found by the local authority to run a 12 month pilot with nurseries and family
centres across Aberdeen. Although the
children showed remarkable development and families, schools and other professionals
reported significant progress in learning, wellbeing and general health, local
authority money ran out. Now the project
runs entirely through fund raising efforts and donations.
Nature Nurture continues to grow and develop however. Groups of 10
children (preschool, 5-8 year olds or 8-11 year olds) are nominated for
programmes of 10- 20 weeks by professionals such as social workers, health
visitors, head teachers, child psychologists. The children join us in the peaceful
grounds of Camphill School Aberdeen. They attend an afternoon each week during
term time and for a week of whole day sessions during school holidays.
The sessions are structured as a journey through different natural
environments. The route is consistent providing
structure and continuity. The journey is
punctuated by time in special places that invite quiet contemplation or
adventurous play. Some of the special
places include a shallow stream, a large grassy slope, woodland, sensory play
trails and farm land. Play in these
locations is initiated and led by the children; the adults’ role is to
facilitate by being available if needed and to provide the materials, skills
and knowledge to enable the children to extend and build on their ideas. The
walk between locations gives opportunity to explore, collect, enjoy physical
challenges or to relax and chat. Companion animals; three specially trained
dogs and two donkeys, accompany the older children in their sessions.
The
Restorative Power of Outdoor Play
Through free play the children grow and develop self-awareness,
confidence and self-esteem because they can test and practise important skills
at their own pace in exciting, stimulating and challenging environments.
Playing outside can be peaceful and relaxing or exhilarating and highly
motivating. Children play more
collaboratively, are more adventurous and energetic when they are
outdoors. They feel better, have a more
positive, joyful outlook and are more engaged with the natural world. Often the children arrive for their first
sessions fearful, anxious and withdrawn because of tensions in their home
environment or at school. By the third
or fourth week we begin to see the children emerging from their shells with
increasing confidence, curiosity and sense of adventure. Many children quickly make connections and
relationships with the natural world and often we see children respond to
nature with awe and wonder for the first time.
The Nature Nurture Project gives children the opportunity to play
freely, alone or with other children.
The adult’s role is to facilitate rather than direct. This requires sensitive observation, deep
empathetic attitudes and presence of mind. We need to be constantly and
consistently available, noticing what is important to the child and creating a
group ethos that celebrates effort, creativity and self initiative. Gradually
children who previously have expected and experienced failure begin to value
themselves and feel valued by others. The natural spaces in which we play are
challenging yet safe, stimulating yet relaxing, peaceful yet exciting. The combination of environment, a programme
that is led by the children’s play and adults who are sensitive, observant and
attuned to each child’s playful explorations and discovery, creates sessions
that are deeply nurturing for every child who participates.
Family
Work: Ensuring Sustainability
The Nature Nurture team are joined in the sessions by social work,
health or educational professionals. They receive training in the approach and
work alongside the team supporting a group of children for the duration of a
programme. This ensures that the
approaches developed with the children are transferred to other settings such
as family centres and schools giving greater sustainability to our work with
individual children and allowing others to benefit from these professionals’
learning and skills developed through the project.
Two spaces in each session are offered to parents or carers.
During these visits parents are supported by the Nature Nurture team in
observing and discussing their child’s play and experiences. We help parents to plan for similar outdoor
play opportunities for their children and identify safe and accessible greenspace
in their local area. For many parents these visits to the project can be as
much a therapeutic experience as it is for their children. Many discover or rediscover the joys of
exploring natural environments. Many
parents feel empowered and inspired when they see their children play freely and
interact in positive ways with others.
Most feel enormous pride when they see their child’s confidence and
developing skills.
After every session a member of the Nature Nurture team takes the
children home, making time for family members to ask questions and receive
feedback on their child’s accomplishments during the session. For many parents this is the first time they
have had positive feedback about their child.
These meetings are invaluable and for many family members it can be the
first steps towards understanding their children’s strengths and needs and a
springboard into more positive and nurturing relationships within the family.
Research
into ‘Healing Environments’
There is now a significant body of research into the effects of
natural environments on individuals’ health and wellbeing. However, one doesn’t
need to be a scientist to know that being active outdoors makes you feel
good. Most adults over the age of 25
have fond memories of playing outdoors when they were children and can remember
the great feeling after plenty of fresh air and physical exertion. Research has shown that children who can play
freely outdoors are motivated to do so because these experiences help them to
feel well. We intuitively know that
looking at a beautiful landscape creates a feeling of peace that reduces
stress. Research (Ulrich, 1991) has shown that blood pressure and muscle
tension are improved for individuals who are able to view green space.
Many people choose to go for a walk in a natural environment to
have the experience of ‘getting away from it all’. Green space can help us feel that we can put
down the stresses and tensions of our daily lives or put problems into perspective. The natural environment inspires poets and
musicians because it can both stimulate and soothe our senses. Research has shown that access to green space
reduces aggressive tendencies (Kuo and Sullivan, 2001) and improves concentration and memory (Kaplan,
1995).
Important emotional connections with
nature occur early in life. Most adults, when asked to name the most
significant place from childhood, consistently recalled somewhere outdoors
(Wells 2000, see also Eigner & Schmuck 1998). Research consistently shows
that nature acts to provide psychologically restorative experiences improving
an individual’s sense of well-being (Ward-Thompson et al., 2005). Interactions with natural environments provide
distraction from everyday stresses (Pals et
al., in press), emotional stress (Korpela et al., 2008) and, for children in particular, result in higher
cognitive functioning (Wells 2000). However as Richard Louv in ‘Last Child in
the Woods’ highlights, there is an increasing prevalence of ‘nature deficit
disorder’ in children, with fewer than ever engaging in outdoor play (Louv
2008). Access to natural environments
is therapeutic. Green space can be a
powerful intervention against physical, mental and emotional stress.
‘Green
Therapy’
Nature Nurture is a ‘green therapy’ for traumatised or anxious
children. This approach can help
children who experience any kind of stress, whether it is due to an attachment
disorder, a trauma, or from a learning disability or emotional/behavioural
disorder such as ADHD. When young
children experience stress they can enter into a vicious cycle of learning and
behavioural difficulties which in turn also increases stress levels. Breaking this cycle can put a stop to long
term and debilitating neural damage caused by the stress hormone, cortisol.
Building
Resilience
According to Grotberg (1993), for a child to become resilient, he
or she needs to feel trusted and loved unconditionally; needs to feel lovable
and respectful of themselves and others; and needs to feel able to talk to
others, to solve problems and to be able to practice self control. Nature Nurture can promote the growth of
resilience through encouraging children to build up trusting relationships and through
learning to assess risk, to set personal challenges and dare to overcome fears
in a thrilling but carefully assessed manner. Research has shown that children
who are allowed to develop skills in risk assessment have fewer accidents and
are less likely to seek excitement and exhilaration through unsafe and
undesirable situations. Helping children
to assess risk and manage their own risk boosts their self-confidence, self
awareness and sense of responsibility for themselves. It also gives them the self-certainty to face
personal challenges and to problem solve creatively and confidently. These
skills are vital to the development of resilient individuals who can face and
overcome adversity in adult life.
Free play in nature unlocks the imagination of the child and the
sensory experiences the children encounter stimulate their wish to explore
without overwhelming them. In peaceful
and beautiful natural settings, children experience awe and wonder for the world
around them and learn to relate to nature on a personal level. This gives children an important value base
for future environmental and ecological awareness, as well as giving them a
sense of place and belonging. Children
learn to care for and about their natural environment and associate being
outdoors with feeling well and healthy.
Childhood wonder has a strong impact on the values and attitudes of
adulthood. We therefore hope that the experiences we can give children will
help inform their lifestyle choices as adults.
Nature
plus Nurture equals Resilience
The Nature Nurture project aims to build the child’s resilience,
providing an intervention that is sustainable and that combats the effects of
trauma, neglect and anxiety. Our aim is
to help vulnerable children develop the fortitude they need to face and
overcome the hardships of their lives and to give them the personal strength
and motivation to make healthy lifestyle choices when they are older. By giving vulnerable children a programme of
outdoor experiences in natural environments we have found that the seeds of
resilience are sown and grow quickly and strongly. Through training and ongoing support in the
approach, partner organisations have shown that they can make the development
sustainable and hopefully help to break the cycles of vulnerability that have
existed in families for generation after generation.
The Nature
Nurture Fund: Creating more Opportunities to Support Children
When Stefan Geider runs in the Edinburgh marathon on 27th
May, he will be helping to ensure that more children have opportunity to
develop resilience through free play and nurturing in natural
environments. With his support and that
of others who are helping raise money for the Nature Nurture Fund we hope to
give Nature Nurture to 120 children and training to 25 professionals in the
Nature Nurture approach this year.
Terri Harrison
Nature
Nurture® is a business name and registered trademark of Family Support Projects
For more information on the approach and training opportunities
please contact:
References
Eigner, S. & Schmuck, P. (1998)
cited in Bögeholz, S (2006) Nature experience and its importance for
environmental knowledge, values and action: recent German empirical
contributions, Environmental Education Research, 12(1) 65-84.
Kaplan, S.
(1995) The restorative benefits of nature: Toward an integrative framework Journal
of Environmental Psychology, 15, 169-182
Korpela,K.,
Ylén,M.,Tyrväinen L., & Silvennoinen, H. (2008) Determinants of
restorative experiences in everyday favorite places, 
Health
& Place Vol. 14, Issue 4, 636-652
Health
& Place Vol. 14, Issue 4, 636-652
Kuo, F. E.
& Sullivan, W. C. (2001) Aggression and violence in the inner city -
Effects of environment via mental fatigue. Environment and Behavior, 33,
543-571.
Louv, R.,
(2005) Last Child in the Woods Algonquin Books New York ISBN
9781565-125223
Ward
Thompson, C., Aspinall, P., & Montarzino, A. (2008) The childhood factor
- Adult visits to green places and the significance of childhood
experience Environment and Behaviour, 40(1), 111-143.
Wells, N.M.
(2000) At Home with Nature: Effects of 'Greenness' on Children's Cognitive
Functioning Environment and Behavior. Vol. 32, No. 6, 775-795.
Ulrich, R.
S. (1991). Effects of health facility interior design on wellness: Theory
and recent scientific research. Journal of Health Care Design, 3: 97-109.
Pals, R., Steg, L,. Siero, F., and van
der Zee, K (in press) Development of the PRCQ: A measure of perceived
restorative characteristics of zoo attractions, Journal of Environmental
Psychology
Grotberg (1993) Promoting
resilience in children: A new approach. Cited in A Guide to Promoting
Resilience in Children: Strengthening the Human Spirit
Available: http://resilnet.uiuc.edu/library/grotb95b.html (Accessed
20/12/09)
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