Article

The Essential Role of Recreational Therapy in Aquatics Programming for Children with Autism

March 2025
Therapeutic Recreation Journal 59(1)

DOI:10.18666/TRJ-2025-V59-I1-12558

Authors:

Lisa Mische Lawson

University of Kansas Medical Center

University of Kansas

University of Kansas Medical Center

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to highlight the essential role of therapeutic recreation on an interdisciplinary team providing swimming and water-safety lessons to individuals with autism. The interdisciplinary team includes recreational therapy, occupational therapy, and community recreation professionals. The program, Sensory Enhanced Aquatics, was developed by recreational and occupational therapists and initially offered in an academic medical center. Sensory Enhanced Aquatics grew to be offered in collaboration with local recreation agencies to better serve the community and extend the healthcare continuum. Literature related to recreational therapy and autism, interprofessional collaborative practice, and adapted aquatics is reviewed to provide context. This manuscript delineates roles of the Sensory Enhanced Aquatics team through categories contributing to effective interprofessional collaboration: bridging gaps, negotiating overlap, and creating spaces. A case example of Sensory Enhanced Aquatics provides details of the successful interprofessional collaborative practice.

ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.

ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.

Article

Full-text available

Comprehensive Development and Validation of the Autism Spectrum Disorder-Therapeutic Recreation Scal...

December 2024 · Journal of Education and Recreation Patterns

Scientific studies indicate that recreational activities positively influence children with mild Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Enhancing the participation of children with ASD in therapeutic recreation necessitates strategic planning for entertainment. This study aims to develop a measurement tool to evaluate the impact of recreational activities within therapeutic contexts on the behaviors of ... [Show full abstract] children with mild ASD. The scale development process involved a comprehensive literature review, leading to the creation of an item pool based on the Autism Behavior Checklist and the Health Protection/Health Promotion Model within therapeutic recreation. Content validity of the item pool was assessed by experts in the field. Data collected from parents of children with mild autism underwent KMO and Bartlett’s tests, followed by Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). The findings resulted in the development of a valid and reliable Autism Spectrum Disorder-Therapeutic Recreation Scale (ASD-TR).Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Recreational Therapy, Scale Development, Therapeutic Recreation

Article

Full-text available

Therapeutic Recreation Support Practice: Children Saving Dormitory Camps

May 2024 · International Journal of Disabilities Sports & Health Sciences

Therapeutic recreation is a process that enables individuals with physical, cognitive, emotional, and social limitations to increase their skills, knowledge, and behaviors through participation in recreational activities to support their development. This process offers opportunities to participate in recreational activities and is seen as an area that makes the lives of children exposed to ... [Show full abstract] difficulties and limitations meaningful. In this direction, it aims to examine the institutional structure of the Children’s Saving Dormitory Camps (CSDC), which is an exemplary application related to the inclusion of children living on the streets in life in the historical process, and to reveal the content of therapeutic recreation practices in organized nature camps. In this study, the document analysis technique, a qualitative research data collection method, was used. The data in this study were obtained through text-based documents, such as state archives, newspapers, and a comprehensive literature review. Within the framework of the findings, the CSDC, which was established in 1933, aimed to help children living on the streets adapt to social life and socialize by implementing an education system that would help them become useful individuals for society. In this context, vocational and academic training, physical activities, and nature camps were organized for the children. The camps organized within the framework of CSDC included therapeutic recreation practices consisting of various physical activities such as swimming, hiking, and camping to support the rehabilitation process of children living on the streets. As a result, the physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development of children living on the streets is supported through camps, physical activities, and therapeutic recreation practices consisting of various games.

Conference Paper

Full-text available

How to Proceed After Hospital Treatment? Integration of Children Living With Serious Illness Into th...

May 2024

Integration of a child after the diagnoses or longer hospitalization is a challenge not only for the sick child but for the classroom community and the teachers. Chronic illness may come with restricted social activities and a more submissive behavior toward peers that may make the child more exposed to bullying (Meijer et al, 2000). Bátor Tábor Foundation established a School-based Program which ... [Show full abstract] tries to help children affected by a disease re-integrate themselves into their school-life. The program aims to help the sick children and their classmates to have a deeper connection and open communication about the illness. The goal is to embolden the participants to overcome their fears, worries and stereotypes while improving self-efficacy and quality of life with using a combination of therapeutic recreation and solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT). The approach of the program helps the involvement of healthy and sick children into personalized and team challenges while they are encouraged to support each other. The innovation of the program lies in the fact that previously the SFBT method was mainly applied to children living with an illness or suffering from behavioral problems (Franklin et al., 2008), but in the School program we extended the intervention to the entire class community – head teacher included.

Article

Full-text available

Clinical vs social approaches to pediatric patient care: the benefits and resistance of therapeutic...

January 2024 · International Journal of Whole Person Care

[...]
Kathleen Lefevre

This presentation outlines the work I did as a Service Aid at the Montreal Children’s Hospital (MCH) from January 2022 to May 2022. I discuss the benefits and setbacks of the work I did with adolescent patients in the MCH psychiatry ward as the “art and play lady”. I also discuss the staff resistance I experienced in this role of offering therapeutic recreation with an embedded social (as opposed ... [Show full abstract] to more traditionally clinical) approach. As a teacher with an MA in art education, I also talk about how I was not treated as a professional by a number of the staff who told me I was “just a teacher”. This is not formal research but is instead an anecdotal and narrative account of my experiences in a role with a less traditional, socially based, patient-centered approach to patient care. The presentation also offers interesting examples of patient artwork that resulted from this experience. Overall, my story points toward the need for greater shifts in the hospital culture to occur to make it more feasible for therapeutic recreation to be available to patients. My story also suggests that more funding and education are needed to make social approaches to patient care more accepted by hospital systems.

Last Updated: 13 Mar 2025