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What are some of the benefits of Outdoor Occupational Therapy (Outdoor OT)?
The outdoors is an accessible (free and always available) multisensory platform which offers unlimited therapeutic benefits for children and their families.  Spending time outdoors allows families a productive way to spend time together and to address many different challenges their children may experience.  Here are some challenges that Outdoor OT can address:
  • Arousal - simultaneous multisensory input
  • Language/communication skills - there is never a shortage of items to identify/discuss
  • Strength and Endurance - walking on trails, riding a bicycle, incentive to get to the end of the trail
  • Heavy work - dragging sticks, throwing rocks, building forts
  • Tactile input - mud, sand, bugs, wind, rain
  • Visual motor skills - walking on a trail, balancing between two stepping stones, walking along a bridge, climbing up a ladder
  • Visual Stimulation - watching leaves rustle, blades of grass dance in the wind, light reflecting off of water
  • Auditory Input - birds chirping, wind blowing, trains whistling, Crickets 
  • Vestibular input - endless movement opportunities 
  • Sensory Regulation - achieved much faster outside because the stimulii is so variable/intense
  • Handwriting - write with fingers or sticks in mud, sand, dirt
  • Social Skills - walking with a group on a trail, helping friends climb over obstacles, team scavenger hunts
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