The Value of Learning in Natural Environments

Natural environments are the places where we live, do things we enjoy, and spend time with the people in our lives.  For young children, natural environments include their home, Mother’s Day Out, school, church, daycare, and outings in the community with family and friends. 

Learning opportunities are available throughout a child’s day.  Therapy provided in a child’s natural environment is the most efficient way for children with developmental disabilities to learn new skills that they can use in their daily life and interactions with family.    

A few of the benefits of providing therapy in a child’s natural environment include:

1.  Children learn skills more quickly when they learn and practice new skills in the places and situations where the skills will actually be used.  For example, if a child practices communication skills during daily activities at home, such as making a request for a snack or to play with a specific toy, the child will more quickly learn to use the skill on their own. 

2.  Children have many more opportunities to practice skills when supports are provided during daily routines and other naturally occurring opportunities at home and in the community.  Therapy services provided outside of the natural environment are limited to a certain number of hours per week.  A child whose parents/caregivers know how to provide support can help a child practice a skill throughout the day, resulting in more learning opportunities for the child and much quicker mastery of a new skill. 

3.  When parents know how to use specific strategies to support their child in daily life, it can make parenting easier and reduce stress while also helping their child learn new skills. 

Our services are provided in the child and family’s natural environment to focus on real life settings, promote generalization of skills, and to encourage family and community involvement.  Services are individualized for each child and family, with the parents/caregivers identifying goals and activities that are the most important to their child and family. 

Partnering with Parents and Caregivers

Caregiver and child looking at object

Children grow and learn within the context of social relationships with the people that are most important in their life.  For children, this is their parent(s) and other primary caregivers.  These are the people who spend the most time with a child, and who have the greatest influence on a child over the course of their lifetime.  They are the people who get them up in the morning, help them during daily activities like mealtime, getting dressed, and taking a bath.  Parents are also the people who teach the child about their family culture, provide social opportunities, and support the child as they explore and experience the world around them. 

As therapists, we often come and go in a child’s life.  Even for those children we do see for an extended period of time, our impact is typically only for a season or short window of their life.  We bring specific expertise based on our field of training.  Parents bring the expertise of knowing their child, their family, and what is most important to them.  As a therapist, the greatest and most lasting impact you can have on a child’s life is through close collaboration with a child’s parent(s) and/or primary caregivers. 

The goal of our services is to partner with you as a parent or other caregiver to help you learn to use research based strategies that help your child learn within daily routines and activities that you do on a regular basis. This helps you as a parent in feeling successful in supporting your child with unique learning needs, and it helps your child gain new skills more quickly with many more learning opportunities throughout their day.

“An “environment of relationships” is crucial for the development of a child’s brain architecture, which lays the foundation for later outcomes such as academic performance, mental health, and interpersonal skills.” 

National Scientific Council on the Developing Child (2004). Young Children Develop in an Environment of Relationships: Working Paper No. 1. Retrieved from www.developingchild.harvard.edu.