July 2017 - Parks & Recreation - 33

to measure the impact of environmental education programming on foster children with ADHD.
Camp Fire Samish, an outdoor adventure camp in Washington state, has partnered with Bellingham Parks and Recreation Department to bring outdoor learning and adventure to
children in the Pacific Northwest. Camp Fire Samish has piloted a few of these studies in the spring, and now that it has
learned the benefits nature provides to young minds, it wants
to act swiftly in the implementation of additional outdoor programming. The camp is in the process of developing an outdoor
stewardship program, called INVEST (Implementing Nature's
Values Empowers Stewards of Tomorrow), which is run out of
a local park.
We are determined to provide equal access to the great outdoors for all children, regardless of the socio-economic status of
their parents, so scholarships are available to those who apply.
We hope to build sustainable programs for all children in the
community. Our growth and expansion allow for the addition
of new, specific programs that cater to the needs of the community, as well as the funding to provide excellent programming.
If we are successful in our endeavors, we could provide some
bit of relief to the children who are the most vulnerable in our
society. We've chosen to work specifically with foster children
because of their general lack of family support.
Research has shown that the less support a child has, the
higher the risk he or she has of developing behavior disorders.
A 2001 study of 1,600 foster children in the United States found
that 50 percent had a social, behavioral or emotional disorder
and that about 25 percent of them had ADHD. In comparison,
the American Psychiatric Association determined that 5-6 percent of children in the United States had ADHD. Clearly, there
is a very alarming discrepancy between the national average of
childhood disorders and the percentage of foster children that
have them.
The goal of the study is to create measurable data in order
to quantify the effectiveness of nature as an intervention for
foster children with ADHD. We will use the Applied Behavior Analysis tool, a widely accepted methodology for assessing
the effectiveness of an intervention on ADHD symptoms, to
measure behavioral changes and intervention efficacy. It is used
by special education departments in U.S. public schools and in
numerous ADHD studies.
We intend to use the tool to construct a case study with Camp
Fire Samish in Bellingham and Western Washington University
in order to measure and record evidence that environmental education programming can reduce symptoms of the disorder as
an alternative intervention to medication.
The case study will be run in early fall of 2017 and will con-

sist of three sessions with 12 foster children in each. Behavior
assessments will be administered at the beginning and end of
the camp experience to measure growth. The foster parents will
also be a surveyed before and after the study. We expect to produce published results, and hope that our case study will serve
as a standardized method for collecting evidence-based data
that park and rec agencies nationwide can use. We will attempt
to answer the following questions:
1. Can environmental education programming cause a measurable reduction of ADHD symptoms in foster children?
2. If so, to what extent?
Most of the existing research, as positive and encouraging
as it is, is correlative, not causal. This is why more research is
needed from park and recreation agencies and environmental
education providers on the preventive and therapeutic benefits
from time spent in nature. If you'd like to learn how to go about
conducting a similar study in your area, we'd be happy to offer
some advice.
Maddie Dineen is the Environmental Education Program Coordinator, Camp
Fire Samish at Bellingham Parks and Recreation (maddie@campﬁresamish.
org).

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