RESEARCH
Nature-Based Interventions for Adults with Developmental Disabilities: A Scoping Review Centering Autistic Adults
Summary
This study is a scoping review, which means the researchers looked at all the available academic research on a specific topic to see what’s been done and what’s missing. In this case, they wanted to understand how nature-based interventions (NBIs) – things like gardening, spending time in forests, or other activities in natural settings – have been studied for autistic adults. They systematically searched through many research databases for articles published between 1985 and 2023. The researchers included studies that involved adults (18 and older) with autism or more general developmental disabilities if autism might have been included in that group. They ended up finding eight articles describing seven different studies that met their criteria, and they looked at the types of interventions used, how the research was conducted, and what the results were.
The review found that there isn’t a lot of research specifically about nature-based activities for autistic adults. The studies they did find used a wide range of nature activities, like walking in the forest, gardening, and even working on biodiversity conservation. Most of the studies watched and measured participants before and after or during the nature activities. However, the researchers noted that the quality of these studies varied, and many didn’t give a lot of detail about the people taking part or exactly what the nature activities involved. Despite these issues, the review suggests that engaging with nature could be helpful for autistic adults in areas like well-being, social connections, communication, and even job skills.
