Strategies Used by Parents to Support Outdoor Play for Children With Disabilities: An Ecocultural Perspective

PURPOSE: Children with disabilities often have challenges participating in outdoor play. Additionally, families of children with disabilities, especially from lower socioeconomic or culturally or linguistically diverse backgrounds, face greater challenges in supporting their children in outdoor play. Unsupportive community environments, including stigma, can negatively impact families’ ability to participate in outdoor play. Parents are often the decision makers in families, especially for children with disabilities; thus, to understand outdoor play opportunities, parents’ decision making must be examined. The purpose of this study was to identify strategies that parents living in a disadvantaged community used to support outdoor play for their children with disabilities.

METHOD: A qualitative multiple-perspective case study design was used to gain an in-depth understanding of participants’ experiences around supporting outdoor play. Five mothers of children with disabilities with low socioeconomic status living in a culturally and linguistically diverse community in a large metropolitan area in Australia were recruited to participate. Their children with disabilities were aged 5–12, attended the same elementary school, and had a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, or developmental delay.

METHOD: The ecocultural model informed the design and analysis of this study. Data were collected using semistructured interviews with the mothers, who also provided a daily survey regarding their child’s participation in outdoor play for 1 wk. Analysis included first understanding each participant’s perspective, then using cross-case analysis. The ecocultural model was used as a framework for first-order coding. Barriers and considerations at each ecocultural layer and strategies to overcome or address them were identified within parent perspectives and then aggregated across perspectives into eight overarching strategies. Member checking, peer debriefing, and validation of the preliminary analysis with subsequent participants supported the rigor of analysis.

RESULTS: Families’ environments and stability of routines influenced how proactive they were in supporting participation in outdoor play. Not all families regarded play as an important routine. To support participation in outdoor play at home and in the community, families sometimes told others about their child’s disability and actively looked for opportunities that fit their child’s skills and interests. Some parents were flexible about the location and time so they could engage in outdoor play as a whole family. Parents showed they could consider play as a break for both the child and parent and thought about how play could support their child’s future as a rationale for continued participation. Some parents supported the play environment by bringing items, modifying the environment, and teaching the child skills. Finally, when other strategies were not appropriate or play would not otherwise be possible, parents often provided increased supervision.

CONCLUSION: Families of children with disabilities from disadvantaged backgrounds can use a variety of strategies to proactively support outdoor play within the home and community. Families were better able to provide support for outdoor play when they had sustainable routines and a supportive environment. Thus, occupational therapy practitioners may need to first support families in creating stable routines and a secure environment before they consider outdoor play strategies. However, these strategies may be applicable for families across socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds.

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