Maslow's Hierarchy and Outdoors Play with Anxious Children, 2. Five Ways to Help Anxious Children Feel Safe when they are Playing Outside

Anxious children don’t feel safe and tend to be in a state of ‘high alert’ or hyper vigilance most of the time.  This is not the state of mind that is conducive with learning.  Maslow’s hierarchy highlights ‘safety’ as the second level.  Before this is achieved, an individual can’t work towards meeting their higher needs.  Interestingly, Bruce Perry in his work on the neuroscience of trauma, describes a similar hierarchy in structure, functioning and development of the brain.  The brainstem is the most primitive part of the brain and the first to be fully developed.  It is the place where reflex, heartbeat, breathing, and the other basic and vital processes are controlled. It is also the region of the brain that takes control when an individual under extreme stress and anxiety, overriding the higher cognitive functions of reasoned thought, language and reflection.  In ‘survival mode’ the brainstem responds to potential threat with fight, flight or freeze responses.  An anxious child who is perpetually on high alert will respond to what others would consider minor worries, with survival responses.  The outer behaviours of fight, flight or freeze are what are often termed ‘challenging behaviours’ and can be met with punitive reactions that will often push a child further into a state of terror.  Another common adult response is to try and engage a child in a reasoned exchange, reflecting on their behaviour and demanding answers, thoughts and reasoning that are beyond the capacity of the brain stem.  For a child to be able to access the higher order functions of the brain such as reflection of self and behaviour, empathy for another, reasoned thought and problem solving,  the child needs to feel safe and secure.  Maslow says the safety needs of an individual include: protection from the elements, security, order, rules, limits, boundaries, stability, etc. If one’s basic safety needs are not met, one would be fearful, hesitant, and anxious and may engage in fight, flight or freeze responses to new situations, experiences or challenges. 

So how can we help anxious children feel safe when they are playing outside?  Or at least how can we help children feel safe enough to take challenges and engage in ‘risky play’, not how can we keep children safe when they are playing outside. The difference is all about agency and building resilience; if children feel safe enough to face challenges, they can learn to keep themselves safe and cope with or overcome their fears.

1.  Build relationships that foster trust.  Children learn to trust when the adults who support them are ‘authentic’.  That means being who you say you are, being honest and ‘upfront’.  Children who have experienced difficult attachments are masters at spotting inauthentic practice.  Do what you said you will do or, if that’s not possible, make sure you explain why you can’t as soon and as clearly as possible.  Don’t make promises that you are not certain you can fulfil. Be true to your own values and tell children why you make the choices and decisions that you do.  Playing outside is the best way to build relationships with peers too, you can help a child to be trustworthy and to develop trust in others through helping them to reflect in the moment, or later, on the way they respond to others.  Make sure you don’t try to do this when the child is feeling under stress though.  Help reduce stress by giving space, time and by soothing distress.

2. Giving consistency is the best way for a child to feel safe.  When you are playing outdoors it’s great to have a sense of freedom but to enjoy that freedom children need to feel that some things are always there and can be relied upon.  The first and most important consistent factor is the individual that the child has learnt to trust.  If you are lucky enough to have a team of adults with your group of children, ensure that the same people are available for the same children each session wherever possible.  If there are changes because of illness or other reasons beyond your control make sure the child knows as soon as possible that ‘their person’ is not going to be there and why.  The other way of ensuring consistency is through routine and session structure.

3.Free play is the best vehicle for learning and development outdoors, but if a session is too loose and open-ended, anxious children will not cope and will start to push boundaries to find out where those boundaries are and to feel contained within those boundaries.  So the reliability of a session structure can make a huge difference to the anxious child’s wellbeing and everyone’s enjoyment of the session.  I think of the consistent structure of a session a framework or scaffolding that support the free play of the children that can then fill the spaces in between.  For example an important part of our sessions is the consistency of the journey we go on each time.  The route we take through the site has been carefully worked out and leads us to four brilliant locations that offer huge potential for free play.  Each location offers something different but they stay the same each session.  How the children fill their time there is up to them. The adults’ role is to help facilitate their play in these special places.  The Nature Nurture journey gives a stable and secure foundation to the children’s learning and development.  They know what to expect and that they are free to take these opportunities and do what they like with them.

4.Linked to routine and structure is what we often refer to as ‘rhythm’.  The planning that we do in Nature Nurture help us to keep in balance the opportunities that we can open up for the children.  For example, for children to feel well, secure and to help them develop self-regulation in their emotions and interactions, we need to ensure that they have a well-balanced ‘diet’ of activity and rest, engagement and time to process, the space to be with others or alone, time to concentrate in a focused way and time to daydream. Healthy children will naturally do this for themselves through their free play, but children who are anxious will need support through carefully selected locations to ensure they have the opportunities to find their own healthy rhythms.

5.Last, but by no means least, is helping children feel safe by helping them to develop the skills to keep themselves safe.  Anxious children are vulnerable children.  Outdoor play is the best vehicle to help children develop confidence and to feel resilient enough to face fears and to face challenges. This is probably one of the most important gifts we can give children through access to outdoor play.  The first thing that our children are amazed about when they come to Nature Nurture is the way we respond to the ‘can we…?’ questions.  They expect the answer to be ‘no’… ‘no you can’t climb trees’, ‘no you can’t play in the stream’, ‘no you can’t light the fire’, ‘no you can’t use a sharp knife’.  They are completely taken aback when we say ‘yes….. what do you need to keep yourself safe while you do that?’  Together we most often come to the conclusion that they need to learn some skills first to become ‘master’ of whatever it is they want to do. So we teach children to climb trees, to light fires, to use sharp tools and most importantly we teach them to risk assess and to learn their own limits.  We also help them see that perseverance and practice can help them improve these skills and gain mastery.  When we see a child is becoming confident we ask that child to help another to master the same challenges. 

We’ve come full circle now, back to trust.  Trust in oneself is a key part of feeling safe and secure, but is only possible when you have others you can trust and who trust you.

Maslow's Hierarchy and Outdoors Play with Anxious Children

I. Five Ways to Meet the Physiological Needs of Anxious Children in Outdoors Play

I was just reading an excellent essay submitted by one of our Forest School Leader Level 3 students that focuses on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and it made me reflect again on how we use this theory in our daily practice.  Maslow believed that human beings are motivated to achieve certain needs. When one need is fulfilled a person seeks to fulfil the next one, and so on. His original five levelled pyramid (1943, 1954) was later expanded in the 1970’s to include eight levels of needs, and it is this model I find most helpful to our work in Nature Nurture and in Forest School. Maslow stated that the human being must satisfy the lower level basic needs before progressing on to meet higher level growth needs.  Once these needs have been reasonably satisfied, one may be able to reach the highest level called self-actualization. Whereas everyone has the potential to achieve self-actualisation, progress is often disrupted by failure to meet lower level needs.

These next two posts are about ensuring that those foundation layers of physiological and safety needs are in place before any expectations are placed on children to achieve the higher levels.  Our first post is all about ensuring the children’s physiological needs are meet.

Physiological needs: Such as food, warmth, shelter, water, and other body needs. An individual cannot be expected to learn, or be motivated to explore and investigate the environment when he/she is hungry, thirsty, cold or wet.  If an individual’s basic biological needs are not met then they cannot trust the environment and remain at a high level of anxiety and stress.  Here are five simple ways we can ensure everyone feels physically comfortable no matter what the weather:

1. Can you provide warm, waterproof clothing for the children rather than depending on them bringing suitable clothing with them?  Fleecy lined waterproofs are essential in the colder months, and ensure you have a box of spare clothes for layering underneath and for changing into if children get wet or cold.  We have a great supply of spare clothes donated by friends of Nature Nurture.

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2.Wellington boots are great for playing outdoors in but hopeless at keeping toes warm in the cold.  If you have money to spare, buy the more expensive thermal snowboots for all your children.  If your funds don’t stretch that far, consider buying fleecy socks such a thermal ‘heat holders’.  Remember to give the children a size larger boot when they are wearing these socks though!  These socks are great for grown-ups too.

3. Ensure that there are snacks available in the session.  Apart from a snack together including a warm drink and something nutritious and tasty to eat, make sure children are not hungry when they arrive.  If they are coming from school, do you know whether they have had breakfast that morning, or whether they have had time to have lunch?  We provide cereal bars and fruit juice/ milk as well as a bowl of fruit for children when they arrive.  Our snack together around the fire towards the end of the session includes hot chocolate, fruit bread and fresh fruit.  During our whole day sessions we have snack around midmorning and cook a hot lunch together on the campfire.  Be careful though, food can be a major source of anxiety.  It is better to give children something they like to eat, even if it’s not particularly nutritious, rather than letting them go hungry because of ‘fussiness’ about particular foods.  We have found by taking all the pressure off the children’s eating habits, they gradually relax and are more open to trying something new.

4. Hats and gloves can be a source of tension too.  Our nurturing instincts as adults make us want to ensure the children are as warm and cosy as possible, but if children sense a point of conflict arising out of something they are not entirely comfortable with, you may lose the beginnings of trust in the first sessions.  We hand children waterproofs, wellies, hats and gloves as a matter of course in the first session and tell them that these things are ‘theirs’ during Nature Nurture.  They have a coat hanger with their name on and all their home/school stuff is hung there while they are in the session and their Nature Nurture clothes are hung up on them when the session is finished. That way there is not a big discussion about ‘where’s your hat?’  If hats and gloves are not worn when we set off on the session, they must be in the children’s pockets in case they need them later.  I always take an extra supply of both in case gloves get wet and hats get lost. Again, once the tension of ‘you must wear a hat’ is taken away, the children usually choose to wear a hat and gloves, especially if they are a cool design.  Check if children have sensory difficulties with wearing tight or ‘itchy’ hats or gloves and help them find an alternative that doesn’t cause them discomfort or distress.

5.Some children have a real issue with keeping clean whereas others can’t have a good time without getting caked in mud and soaking wet.  Very often either extreme can be an indication of a sensory problem or a major anxiety and should be approached with care and understanding.  Firstly the child who is anxious about getting dirty. This may be as simple as being worried that they will be in trouble at home or school if their clothes get marked or muddy.  There is nothing worse than trying to wash mud out of school uniforms or any other clothes for that matter, so always ensure the children have top to bottom waterproof covering.  For our pre-schoolers we have all in one snow suits or unlined waterproof playsuits for the warmer months.  Our older children have waterproof jackets and trousers.  We like the dungaree type that cover the waist and strap up at the shoulders.  With these our children can play freely without fear of getting wet or muddy on the inside.  Gentle reassurance for those who are still anxious is usually enough, but don’t ever let the child feel coerced into participating in muddy play by adults or peers.  Then there are the children who cannot cope with the tactile experience of having dirty hands.  These children may have sensory processing difficulties that result in them being hypersensitive to tactile experiences.  If this is getting in the way of them exploring and investigating the environment, offer them gloves and have a supply so they can be changed frequently.  We like the ‘Magic Glove’ type because they are thin and stretchy and allow finer motor coordination in a way that thick gloves don’t.  Also make equipment like tweezers and trowels available so hands on experiences don’t’ have to be quite so hands on, and always have some hand wipes available for instant clean ups. Again take the sting of pressure out of the situation and meet the child with compassion and understanding.  Stress is alleviated when the child feels they have some level of control in a situation. Once this has been achieved the child can begin to trust and relax. Then there are the children who just crave mud and water, and will happily get covered from head to foot.  Best policy is to let them get it out of their system and provide immediate changes of clothes so they don’t get cold.  We find that the trips back to base to get changed are enough to help a child see it is best not to go completely over the top.  Self-regulation is always best!  We like to give the message in all that we do that mud and dirt are an important part of Nature Nurture and that messy play is brilliant and fun.

Finally; don’t forget the adults!  I have learnt that encouraging parents and carers to join us means that I really need to plan for their physiological wellbeing as well as their children’s.  Have a supply of warm waterproof clothing and footwear available to help them have a positive experience of outdoor play too!