Going Wild: Will Adventure Education help adolescents with Autism/and intellectual disorders
improve Socialization skills?
Elizabeth Motley
Longwood University
Therapeutic Recreation Department
The beauty of nature and the thrill of being one with yourself and the environment are in
the hearts and dreams of all men. It is a deep-welled desire in all of us spoken by the great poets
and philosophers to find one self on the heroic journey that takes us into the heart of becoming
one with Mother Earth. The Earth and adventure trips also bond us to each in profound ways,
and indeed to love and be loved is mankind's greatest need. Due to some unique challenges with
communication and social skills youth with autism and other intellectual disorders sadly never
get this chance. There is research that proves that outdoor education can give youth with Autism
the same opportunities to find themselves and experience the beauty of nature by making some
simple adjustments to trip that allow everyone to participate in a meaningful way. The research
also states that outdoor education can improve social and communication skills among people
with autism, this improving and strengthening their relationships.
“Adventure Education program impact the interpersonal and intrapersonal development
of participants through experiences within the natural environment that provides emotional,
physical, and social challenges”. (Sutherland and Stroot 2009, p.27). This is extremely important
in the development of relationships and social skills for people with Autism and intellectual
disability’s. People with Autism generally have huge deficits in communication skills, and poor
to limited social skills. This leads to insolation and teasing from their peers. (Sutherland and
Stroot, 2009).
Autism is disorder that affects everyone differently, but there are a few key symptoms
that seem to exist among most cases of autism. The first symptom is that people with autism
have a deficit in communication, struggling to find words, the right words to say, and
understanding gestates, voice tone, and inflection. The person can be verbal, or nonverbal, but
none the less struggles to communicate. They also lack social skills, and can appear rude,
because they do recognize social cues, but in fact want to learn them. Their brains are often very
logical, so the social skills may make no logical sense to them, and this must be taught. They
also focus on certain things they are interested in, almost to the point of obsession. They engage
in receptive behavior such as hand flapping, or rocking to calm themselves. They can also
become very easily overwhelmed by an overload of sensory stimulus, such as bright lights or
loud noises. According to many studies “when compared to their typically developing peers,
children with autism have been found to spend less time interacting, experienced lower quality
interactions, spend more time in purposeless no activity’s, spend less time in proximity to peers,
received less social initiations from peers, focused less on other children and produced fewer
verbalizations to others.” (Sutherland and Stroot, 2009, p. 29) It is a sad fact that isolation among
children with autism is self-imposed, as a result of their own behaviors, rather than direct peer
avoidance.
It is imperative that people with autism are treated using evidence based practice to
decide on which interventions will improve their social skills. The CTRS should keep individual
client needs and interests in mind when placing the client in programs. The CTRS must also
make sure that the client goals, meet the program goals, and are appropriate for the client. The
client needs to also be appropriate for the program. Goals are measurable desired outcomes set
by the therapist that follow a logical sequence of events and should have clear, meaningful
detailed yet simple measurements of that demonstrated skill. This allows both the client and the
therapist to see how the treatment is progressing, and what changes need to be made. The goals
need to be structure and ordered in order to meet the demands and needs of the client.
Brads story is an observation made by researcher of a three day wildness trip rockclimbing trip for young teenager, with the focus on Brad, a young man with autism. The
researcher conducted interviews before the trip, during the trip, and after the trip with Brad, his
family, the trip leaders, and other campers on the trip. She also observed Brads behavior on the
trip, and how it affected others, as well as the impact upon Brad himself. The researcher found
that Brad had clear cut simple goals set for him to achieve better socialization skills with his
peers. The treatment used with Brad and with many individuals with autism is going on wildness
trips, or through ropes courses. The goal of these inclusive trips is to improve socialization, and
build lasting relationships between the person with autism and their peers. (Sutherland and
Stroot, 2009)
Brad was slow to get comfortable with the group, but when he did he found it very
rewarding. He did not say hi to the group on the van ride, and moved closer to them in activities
but did not interact. He helped lead songs at the campfire and talked to a few group members.
“Two defining moments occurred that helped to facilitate Brad “letting his guard down” in
relation to interaction with his peers.” (Sutherland and Stroot, 2009 p.33) He was given thanks
and praise by one of his fellow group members for helping out because “he didn’t really climb he
just really helped a lot.” (Sutherland and Stroot, 2009, p.33) He also participated in
teambuilding games the second day and in the closing interview said he had learned “to talk to
people more, and also to “make new friends” (Sutherland and Stroot, 2009 p.33).
Brad actually formed lasting friendships with people from the trip, and it had long term
positive impacts on his socialization skills. Brad took the role of helper, and helped the adults set
up camp, belay other campers, and prepare meals. He was observing his peers during this time,
and also leaning new leisure skills. He would like to go another trip with this same group, but not
a different because he still feels uncomfortable talking to people he does not know. His mom
thinks more trips like this one will help Brad further improve his socialization skills. It seems
Brad has a long way to go, but met his goals successfully on this trip. There were some
challenges faced by Brad and the group common on trips with people with autism or other
intellectual disorders. (Sutherland and Stroot, 2009) It is clear from the research that Brads
social skills improved, and he made lasting friendships. Brad wants to go on more trips, which
will help him improve his social skills even further.
There are special challenges to including students with intellectual disabilities on
adventure programing trips. McAvoy, Smith, and Rynders (2006), state that “Obstacles can
appear especially daunting when attempts are made to involve individuals with cognitive
disabilities who present serious accommodation challenges”. Due to emotional and behavioral
problems, such as an individual with a cognitive challenge using profane language or physical
aggression on an outdoor trip, the group can quickly loose trust in the person, and in each other,
tearing apart the group’s sense of belonging as a unit. People with cognitive disabilities also
often display an unwillingness or inability to reliable self-monitor medical conditions and safety
precautions. A person with a serious diabetic condition who refuses to self-treat the condition,
because of an intellectual disability or brain damage can according to Mcavoy “lead to an
emergency evacuation with feeling of embarrassment on the part of the individual with a
disability, and feelings of anger and disappointment on the part of other participants”. (Mcavoy,
Smith, Rynders, 2006, P. 183) This may be the reason why people with disabilities are not
included on trips, and if they are, are not a part of the group, thus still lacking in social skills, and
self-imposed isolation.
An individual with autism, or an intellectual disorder often needs a lot of extra time and
patience from the therapist in order to successfully complete the activities on an adventure trip.
The person might need to have directions repeated multiple times, before they understand. They
need directions broken down into simple steps that are easy to process. They also need hands on
practice of a skill before applying it on a trip. Pre-trip instruction is very helpful for them. They
also should be with students who have similar ability levels and have a lot of time to process
instructions. It is helpful if a peer without a disability acts as a helper for the person with a
disability. Education about the disabilities and its limitations should be given to members of the
trip, with permission from the person with a disability or their care-giver. (Mcavoy, Smith,
Rynders, 2006)
Mcavoy, Smith, and Rynder offer some great tips on achieving the goal of social growth
as an outcome of an outdoor adventure trip. Freedom of choice is the key, and choices should be
offered as often as possible. Some choices the person can make are who to paddle with, when to
take a break and what to have for lunch. This freedom of choice helps the client to feel “incontrol” and respected. Many people with autism are ignored, and feel their voice is not heard,
or are treated like children even as adults. This can lead to frustration, and aggressive behavior. .
The choices they make should be made with the group, and understood that their choices affect
everyone in the group. The clients with disabilities need to included in group discussion, and
able to offer their opinions. ” (Mcavoy, Smith, Rynder, 2006, p. 196)
Jane Brodin (2009) states that outdoor education is better a teaching modality then
traditional education for people with individuals with disabilities. In Europe outdoor education is
a standard teaching tool for all children, but often time’s people with disabilities are excluded
due to the challenges they present to trip leaders. “The majority of the municipalities offer some
kind of outdoor education but they have not yet reflected on the many benefits (.e.g. health
reasons, learning together, and social interaction) or outdoor education activities for adults with
intellectual disabilities. Most municipalities are working under financial pressure and claim that
they do not have enough resources for the tasks they are responsible for, for example daily
activities for persons with intellectual disabilities. This might explain why some of them have
not reflected on the access to outdoor education.” (Brodin, 2009,p .12)
Brodin states in response to this that “Why and in what respects can access to outdoor
education be regarded as a tool for inclusion? First of all persons with intellectual disabilities
have the same right to education as other citizens. Outdoor education offers opportunities to
promote communication and learning of concepts with all the senses in co-operations with others
and it supports lifelong learning. Inclusion is a societal goal and outdoor education can b used as
a tool towards attaining inclusion. Communication in small groups often facilitates the
opportunity to influence daily life and is therefore a value per se.” (Brodin, 2009, p.12)
It is important to include student’s autism and intellectual disabilities in outdoor
education because it improves their social skills, communication skills, and allows them the
freedom of choice. It also gives them the health benefits of weight loss and exercise. Many
people with intellectual disabilities are obese and have sedentary lifestyles. They often have heart
problems, diabetes, and high blood pressure, seen a lot in people with Down syndrome. These
conditions can often be controlled through exercise and outdoor education and adventure
education are effective ways to achieve this, as well as to improve socialization and promote
inclusion. (Grenier, Rogers, Iarrusso, 2008)
There are some key strategies laid out by Grenier, Rogers, and Iarrusso in order to
successfully include students with Down syndrome and other intellectual disabilities in
adventure programing. The same program can also work for youth with Autism. This program
takes place at a high school but can be implemented anywhere. These include Adult support for
the people with disabilities. Adult support is caregivers, therapists, and family who knew the
client and their ability’s well enough to help the teacher or leader during the activity. Care must
be given so that the person’s independence is not compromised. “Teachers should avoid the
tendency too heavily rely on paraprofessionals because this may limit the social interaction with
peers.” (Greiner, Rogers, Iarrusso, 2008, p.31.)
It is also important to establish and practice good communication skills including verbal
cueing. Verbal cueing could include statements such as “Reach here, grab this, and hold on tight”
These phases are short, specific and to point. It is helpful to go over vocabulary and words
related to the adventure experience. It is useful to point to objects or give visuals when leading
the group in instruction. One on one or small group may be effective here. Finally it is important
to continue to practice skills the students have learned, and build upon these before introducing
new skills to be learned. (Grenier, Rogers, Iarrusso, 2008)
The research clearly proves that individuals with autism and intellectual disabilities lack
behind their peers in social and communication skills which leads to isolation. These individuals
desire lasting friendships, and want to fit in and improve their social skills. They also enjoy
recreation and the outdoors as much as their peers. If adventure education trips are planned that
are inclusive with appropriate modifications made for the people with autism, there is strong
evidence that the person social skills are improved, and the results are long-lasting.
References
Brodin, J. (2009). Inclusion through Access to Outdoor Education: Learning in Motion
(LIM). Journal Of Adventure Education And Outdoor Learning, 9(2), 99-113.
Grenier, M., Rogers, R., & Iarrusso, K. (2008). Including students with down syndrome in
adventure programing.Joperd, 79(1), 30-35.
McAvoy, L., Smith, J. G., & Rynders, J. E. (2006). Outdoor Adventure Programming for
Individuals With Cognitive Disabilities Who Present Serious Accommodation
Challenges. Therapeutic Recreation Journal, 40(3), 182-199.
Sutherland, S., & Stroot, S. (2009). Brad's story: Exploration of an inclusive adventure education
experience . Therapeutic Recreation Journal ,XLIII(3), 27-39.
Topic Identification & Initial Literature Review Form
Briefly describe the topic. My topic is Outdoor education and its affect upon improving
socialization among people with Autism/Intellectual disorders. Outdoor education is also called
Adventure Education, and can include ropes courses, backpacking trips, rafting trips, repelling
trips and anything that connects one to nature and the outdoor. In Rare cases in can be done
indoors like at Indoor ropes courses, or Rock Climbing Gyms. Charlotte, North Carolina has an
indoor white water rafting center where many skills can taught such as ropes courses, repelling,
rafting, and kayaking! I am trying to proof that using this adventure education as an intervention
will improve socialization among youth with autism.
What is your specific research question?
Will outdoor education trips improve socialization among youth with autism?
From your explanation above, fill in the first row of table below – pulling out your key concepts
and placing them in the appropriate box. Next, generate as many synonyms for each key
component that might assist you in searching the literature and fill in the second row of the table.
From your selected topic
Synonyms
Client Type,
Population,
Characteristics
Course of Action,
Treatment,
Intervention
Alternative (if any)
Outcome or
intended results
Autism
Intellectual
disabilities
Wildness trips
Backpacking
Canoeing
Hiking
Adventure education
Camps
Outdoor Education
Improved
socialization,
improved outdoor
adventure skills,
lasting friendships,
better home life,
client is happier and
has better QOL.
Complete a minimum of three combinations of search terms from your list above to conduct your
literature review and enter the number of results for each. (You should do more, but this is the
minimum required. If you do more, include your most “successful” searches in the box below).
Do not include a search that yields no results. Please also record the databases you used and the
timeframe (years of results).
Search Terms Combined
(Adventure or outdoor) and learning disabilities
( adventure or outdoor ) AND ( autism or autistic )
Results (number of
Databases
articles)
searched
188
One Search
81
One Search
Timeframe (years)
2003-2013
2003-2013
( adventure or outdoor ) AND education AND ( autism
or autistic )
10
One Search
2003-2013
Literature Review Table
Using the table format shown below, complete a literature review table on your topic by
summarizing each of the 8-10 articles you identified in your search. Please only list the author
and date on the table, but include a reference page with full reference citation for each article in
proper APA format. Concisely but comprehensively summarize each article.
Source
Purpose
Design
Outcome Focus
Results
Author & Date
Describe the
research question
being investigated
and/or purpose of
the study
Describe the
research design,
measurement
tools and number
of subjects/
participants
List all
outcomes
measured
Summarize the
results including
statistical
significance
Michelle
Grenier,
Richard Rogers
& Kristin
Iarrusso January
2008
Will adventure
programing help
promote positive
social skills
between students
with Down
Syndrome and
their peers?
Integrate students
with Down
Syndrome into an
indoor adventure
rope course
program at a high
school gym using
adult and peer
support. Three
teachers, one
student with
down syndrome,
other students
with cognitive
disabilities, and
their peers in the
P.E class took
part in the study.
They measured
physical ability
to complete the
ropes course,
social skills
gained, and
overcoming fear
of heights on the
course.
Physical and
social skills
increased and
fear of height’s
decreased with
the completion
of the ropes
course.
Conclusions and
Issues
Summarize in
bullet points
major conclusions
from findings
and/or any
concerns
regarding study
methodology that
may have
impacted results
There is a strong
positive
correlation
between
adventure
programing and
helping people
with cognitive
disabilities
improve their
social skills.
There are a few
adaptions to be
made in order for
this to be
successful, like
verbal cueing,
simple
instructions,
limited choices,
challenge by
choice, and extra
harnesses and
lifting of the
client, or other
physical
adaptions.
Sue Sutherland
& Sandra Stroot
November 3rd
2009
Will integrating a
person with
Autism into a
wildness
adventure trip
help him improve
his social skills?
Observation will
be used on the
trip using direct
observations
(field notes) and
interviews
including face to
face and phone
interviews before,
during and after
the 3 day rock
climbing trip. The
participants were
7 adolescents
between 10-14
years of age
including Brad,
and three trip
leaders.
Brad was
measured on
improving his
social skills of
helping with
tasks on the trip,
taking part in
climbs and
interacting with
the group.
Jane Brodin
December 2009
Will including
students with
intellectual
disabilities in an
inclusive outdoor
education
program improve
their quality of
life, and improve
communication
and social
interaction?
They used
interviews and
questionnaires
with open ended
questions to get
information.
There were four
adults from
Germany with
intellectual
disabilities
including two
men and two
women who were
directly involved
in the study.
They measured
how much
enjoyment the
clients got from
trip, how their
physical and
social skills
improved, and
compared this to
research on
target groups
consisting of
children and
adults with
intellectual
disabilities in
four countries.
Teachers much
build a
community that
includes students
with disabilities
into the
curriculum.
Brad wanted to
The trip has a
stay with the trip positive outcome
leaders at first,
for Brad, who
but later made
made friends on
friends with the
the trip and
other group
become part of the
members who
group. He also
accepted him as learned new
one of their own. camping skills;
He did not
however these
participate in
social skills did
many of the
not carry over into
climbs but he
his real life. Brad
helped belay
does desire to go
students more as on other trips, and
time went by, as the hope is these
well as helping
trips will improve
with camp tasks his social skills in
like pitching
real life.
tents and
cooking meals.
They found a
There must be
positive
more research
correction
done on this
between
subject, and we
including
should pay more
students with
attention to the
intellectual
benefits gained by
disabilities in an participation in
outdoor
outdoor education.
education
Many
program, and
municipalities
improving their
have limited funds
social and
and resources to
physical skills.
include students
with disabilities in
their outdoor
education
programs, or
Leo Mcavoy,
John Smith, &
John Rynders
2006
Will
accommodating
people with
cognitive
disabilities into
outdoor adventure
programs improve
their social and
leisure education
skills?
There were 23
people who
participated in the
study who all had
cognitive
disabilities. Two
questionnaires
were developed
which accessed
client growth in
outdoor
recreation skills
and which
accessed client
satisfaction on
the trip and was
taken by both the
clients and the
staff who
accompanied
them on the trip.
The surveys were
taken on the first
and last day of
the trip using a
three point scale.
Open end
questions and
probe questions
were given in
semi-structured
interviews 7-14
after the trip, and
again included
the client, and
those who
accompanied
them on the trip.
The clients rated
their skills and
satisfaction as
low on the first
day of the trip,
while the staff
rated them
slightly higher.
The end of the
trip saw a great
increase in skill
noted by both
clients and staff.
In addition the
interviews
revealed mostly
positive results
with the client
satisfaction.
The clients
learned positive
social skills,
camping and
canoeing skills,
and were overall
happy with the
trip. The clients
felt the leaders
were friendly,
felt safe, learned
new skills, and
thought the
equipment was
in good shape.
Only 77% of
clients would go
on another trip
like this, and
77% got to do
things they
wanted on the
trip. Only 61%
said they did not
have to work too
hard on the trip.
develop a program
for them.
The article gave
many tips and
trips for
accommodating
people with
cognitive
disabilities on in
outdoor adventure
program. The
research shows
inclusive
programs like
“Gateway” with
trained quality
professional’s
may lead to more
inclusive outdoor
opportunities for
their “hard to
serve” population.
The program has
positive impacts
on the clients, and
greatly improves
the quality of their
life rather or not
the trip inclusive
with peers or just
with people with
disabilities.
References
Brodin, J. (2009). Inclusion through Access to Outdoor Education: Learning in Motion
(LIM). Journal Of Adventure Education And Outdoor Learning, 9(2), 99-113.
Grenier, M., Rogers, R., & Iarrusso, K. (2008). Including students with down syndrome in
adventure programing.Joperd, 79(1), 30-35.
McAvoy, L., Smith, J. G., & Rynders, J. E. (2006). Outdoor Adventure Programming for
Individuals With Cognitive Disabilities Who Present Serious Accommodation
Challenges. Therapeutic Recreation Journal, 40(3), 182-199.
Sutherland, S., & Stroot, S. (2009). Brad's story: Exploration of an inclusive adventure education
experience . Therapeutic Recreation Journal ,XLIII(3), 27-39.