Text。Photography：William Tsang（Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Nature Bathing）

According to the definition by the Hong Kong Education Bureau, students with special educational needs are those who encounter certain difficulties in learning and require special educational support. This includes students with intellectual developmental disorder, physical disabilities, visual impairments, hearing impairments, hyperactivity and attention deficit, autism spectrum disorders, and so forth, who require individualised support when learning in the classroom. What kind of support would be required if a child’s lessons were relocated to the natural environment outdoors? What benefits might such an outdoor setting bring to their physical and mental wellbeing, as well as their learning development?

What students with special educational needs require is learning how to study within the constraints of their own circumstances. They must learn to adapt to their physical and mental conditions, as well as how to interact with society and their environment.

Young children lay on the grass in an urban park near their school, savouring moments in nature.

Whether guided by mentors or given the opportunity to explore freely, the natural environment offers children diverse sensory stimulation: the tactile sensation of touching trees, stones or flowing water; the auditory experience of birdsong, wind rustling and ocean waves; the olfactory discovery of rain, earth and woodland scents; and the visual wonder of ever-changing, awe-inspiring landscapes. This sensory-based learning process not only cultivates weaker skills but also enhances their learning capacity in areas of strength.

All primary school students enjoyed a nature-themed version of musical chairs together on the large lawn.

Learning in nature delivers optimal educational outcomes across four dimensions: academic knowledge, physical development, mental wellbeing, and spiritual growth.

Academic Knowledge

Much of the knowledge acquired in the classroom can also be learned in the great outdoors, often with even greater effectiveness. Whether through experiential learning in languages, mathematics, general knowledge, arts, or science, everything can be learned within nature. Research further indicates that natural environments enhance children’s initiative in learning, boost productivity (academic outcomes), and stimulate creativity. Authentic environmental experiences provide children with profoundly enriching learning journeys.

Parent-child families collaboratively created blueprints for their ideal “nature playground” using natural materials.

The child is sharing with his tutor an artistic design he has created using natural materials.

Physical Development

At different stages of a child’s development, nature provides the finest support for their physical growth. Contact with soil strengthens immunity and enhances the body’s capacity for self-recovery when combating viral infections. Moving and running across varied terrains increases physical activity, promoting the development of large muscles; while interacting with objects of different sizes—such as picking up stones or leaves, or even wielding branches—further exercises fine motor skills through bodily coordination. Furthermore, sustained physical activity effectively enhances overall fitness, oxygen uptake in the respiratory system, blood circulation, brain development, sensory acuity, and helps prevent obesity.

Families with special needs children happily enjoyed barefoot play on the grass in an urban park.

Mental Health

From a scientific perspective, humans possess a “biophilia” towards nature, meaning we are inherently drawn to the natural world. When connected with nature, we experience a sense of harmony, pleasure, and contentment. Upon entering a forest, breathing in the fresh air produced by trees while absorbing the phytoncides they emit can, within just 20 minutes, lead to a reduction in stress hormones and an increase in happiness hormones. Children, too, possess emotions that require channels for expression and release. Yet they may not yet possess the verbal skills to articulate their feelings and needs. Nature provides them with the space to express and vent these emotions, making it the most suitable environment for enhancing their sense of happiness.

Ethnic minority students observed plants around them in nature alongside friends.

Children observed small creatures in a country park under the guidance of their instructor.

Spiritual Growth

A child’s learning encompasses spiritual growth and education, such as learning how to interact with others, facing success and failure, overcoming difficulties, exercising creativity, understanding society and the world, contemplating the meaning of life, discovering one’s self, shaping one’s identity, and forging one’s future. Most of these spiritual growth topics cannot be acquired from books alone. By taking nature as our teacher, all these subjects can be experienced simultaneously during every session of nature play.

Young children with special needs attempted to climb independently to the end of a course under the guidance of an instructor.

Young children with special needs, guided by their instructor, separated from their parents to learn self-care and exploration within the natural environment.

Readers may observe that the support and outcomes described for children with “special educational needs” appear identical to those for children without such needs. Yet this very point encapsulates the paramount significance of learning in nature—for in nature, no child’s needs are considered exceptional. Every student requires tailored instruction, where learning motivation is ignited through personal interests and profound learning experiences yield superior educational outcomes. In truth, every student’s needs are equally valid and equally “special”.

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