ADHD, Research, Landscape and Human Health Laboratory, University of Illinois. Green Play Settings Reduce ADHD Symptoms The Landscape and Human Health Lab’s research has shown that performing activities in green settings can reduce children’s Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder symptoms. In an initial, Midwestern-based survey, parents of children with AD/HD were more likely to nominate activities that typically occur in green outdoor settings as being best for their child’s symptoms and activities that typically occur in indoor or non-green outdoor settings as worst for symptoms. Also, parents rated their child’s symptoms as better, on average, after activities that occur in green settings than after activities in non-green settings. In the subsequent, nation-wide survey, parents again rated leisure activities—such as reading or playing sports—as improving children’s symptoms more when performed in green outdoor settings than in non-green settings.
AD/HD affects up to 7% of children. Kuo, F.E., & Faber Taylor, A. (2004). For more information: More questions? Almost There on ADVANCE for Occupational Therapy Practitioners. Vol. 21 • Issue 12 • Page 14 It has been almost 21 years since the December day in 1988 when one of occupational therapy's most revered educators and researchers, Alma Jean Ayres Baker, died in California. She was only 68 years old. Ayres, always known simply as Jean, left thousands of sorrowing professional colleagues with the cornerstone of a theory grounded in neurodevelopment that would soon become one of their greatest triumphs-and biggest stumbling blocks-in the field of pediatrics.
Even Ayres admitted that she hadn't yet learned much of what there was to know about "sensory integration. " But she believed that in order to fully develop both motor and cognitive skills, the human brain has to internally digest and route (process) continuing feedback from all the senses, particularly tactile, proprioceptive and vestibular. The American Medical Association refuted the idea totally. So did many occupational therapists. But 40 years after her work began, Ayres soon may be vindicated. Sensory Processing Disorder.
Understanding Sensory Processing Disorder on ADVANCE for Occupat. Sensory Processing Disorder Foundation | Research, Education and. The Out-of-Sync Child.