Purpose of Study

JH is a fourth grade student who is obsessed with cutting up poster board and gluing things to it. On occasion he will erupt and begin shouting profanities. He enters the resource room at 10:00 AM everyday making loud noises and screams things like "Get away from my desk!" At other times he makes loud animal noises and when reprimanded by the teacher he takes on the personality of a fire spitting dragon and hisses. He is taken from the resource room daily at 10:05 to take his daily dose of Ritalin. During the past two weeks he has been suspended for threatening to bring a 22 pistol to school to use on a peer and another time he was overheard by the teacher, saying, " Just wait till next week; I can bring a bomb to school."

JH is allowed to keep a box near his desk for his "supplies" which includes mounds of cut up construction paper, scissors, yarn, and toilet paper rolls. He is obsessed with wrapping string around tubular objects, and he roams the room gathering more supplies. Frequently he has to be pulled from the teacher’s supply cabinet. JH also enjoys crawling on the floor picking up paper clips or staples that have fallen. Once the medicine has taken effect he will remain in his seat, however his work remains unfinished until he receives one-on-one assistance. Although he is nine years old, he reads on a second grade level and does math on a first grade level. In the cafeteria he rarely eats, but instead stares into space, only erupting every now and then to scream at classmates. At recess he scours the playground looking for rocks or other items to pick up. JH is currently being treated by a psychiatrist and has been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder. Although his teachers seem to agree that he is hyperactive they also feel he exhibits symptoms of other disorders such as autism or Tourette’s Syndrome, perhaps. JH has few friends and doesn’t relate well with his teachers. At home he tests his mother’s authority but responds to his stepfather with respect. His mother reports that during his first four years of life his biological father was verbally abusive and had "impulse control problems". JH is obsessed with video games, and particularly Mortal Kombat. The goals we selected for him were to reduce verbal abuse, roaming the room and to increase work completion.

JH is one example of students who struggle with the regular day to day routines of school. He is precisely the kind of student I wanted for my study on the effects of gardening on behavior. I wanted to find out if gardening would help improve the behavior of these kinds of students.

Four students in this study were labeled as behaviorally disordered which the federal government defines as:

A condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree, which adversely affects academic performance: inability to learn which can not be explained, inability to build satisfactory relationships, inappropriate types of behaviors under normal circumstances, general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression.

Depending upon whom you ask from 1-40% of the school-aged population is behaviorally disordered. Quay (1979) identified four clusters of disordered children: conduct disorders, anxiety-withdrawn, immaturity, and socialized aggression.

The term Therapeutic comes from the Greek word therapeutikos meaning to attend, worship and treat medically. Horticulture therapy is a discipline that uses plants, garden activities, and the natural world for professionally conducted programs in therapy and rehabilitation.

When one works in a garden the sense of smell, touch, hearing and vision are all engaged. The garden also offers opportunities to socialize, learn about plants, and participate in experimentation.

In 1978 Benjamin Rush began using farming as a therapeutic device with the mentally ill. He believed that working the earth would have therapeutic benefits. After thirty years of researching the therapeutic effects of gardening Lewis writes, " Soon after the gardening experience has begun, evidence of achievement becomes apparent. Each sprouting seed, new leaf, or shoot provides immediate proof to the gardener that his nurturing activities have been successful." (Chambers 1996).

"Schools with programs for special populations have long known the benefits of teaching horticulture skills. The pleasures of color, fragrance, shape; texture and taste may soothe people who are compensating for some sensory, mental or motor deficiency."

Children with disabilities are often unable to accurately integrate colors, lights, sound, and textures received through their senses. For example supplying gardens with chimes and water stimulate the auditory sense. Vestibular system integration is heightened through diverse topography, which enhances eye-hand-foot coordination, spatial awareness, and balance. A garden can be therapeutic and motivational to students as well as reinforcing areas of the curriculum.

Several studies have found that having plants in view can be therapeutic. One study revealed there is less violence in housing projects in which plants are part of the landscape. " All kinds of things that are aesthetically nice have measurable and important effects on human behavior. Heart rates improve and blood pressure goes down." (Kuy, 1997,7a).

Chung and Sim (1998) studied the psychological effect that plants have on people. They conducted a study that examined behavioral and psychological effects of interior plants on psychiatric patients in Seoul, Korea. The Social Behavior Scale measured behavior before and after the introduction of plants. After plants were installed in the ward, two out of every three sub-scales showed significant differences. Results from the Observational Emotional Inventory revealed significant differences in self-concept. The increase of mean scores revealed heightened emotional stability through contact with plants.

The fields of psychiatry and landscape architecture found a partnership when scientific evidence began to confirm that access to nature and the out of doors can actually speed recovery and create a sense of well-being. Douglas Reed received the President’s Award for Excellence with a therapeutic garden he designed for the Institute for Child and Adolescent Development Center. The primary purpose of the garden was to provide a series of distinct experiences to help children reveal inner feelings that they may have difficulty articulating but will express through behavior.

Some hospitals routinely utilize horticulture therapy and some psychiatrists refer patients to horticulture therapists. Some therapists choose to incorporate a behavior management plan using horticulture bucks which entitle students to earn time to care for plants (John Paul Brault, 1999).

A few studies have been done to examine how gardening helps young students who are at risk. Chronister (1993) did a study on the effects of horticulture therapy on seriously emotionally disturbed children and found gains in work completion, reading, science and social studies. There was also a decline in depression.

Dawson (1999) studied the effects of a garden based community program on attitudes and behaviors of juvenile offenders and found these target participants demonstrated a 7% improvement in environmental attitudes. The program was effective in reducing crime rates of juvenile offenders. Gardening also seems to help children form friends with common interests. Peele (1995) describes a school garden in New England that grows pumpkins to help subsidize school supplies. She reports students who work together toward a common goal forge a strong bond with peers, teachers, and parents.

Our knowledge of the brain has increased with the advent of Magnetic Resonance Imaging machines that can distinguish between neurons that may be separated by one millimeter (Sylwester, 1993). Many of the beliefs about learning, instruction, emotions and memory have been unchanged for a hundred years. Recent brain research may help teachers understand and address the possible causes of student behavior.

Several studies have been done on the effect of odor on mood. Gabriel (1999) designed a study to determine the effect of scented conditions on mood. She found that when pleasant odors were emitted into the classroom the children required fewer teacher redirections. Goleman (1996) described the relationship between memory, olfaction, and emotion. He has hypothesized that the centers for emotion evolved from the olfactory lobe. Sylwester reports that emotions play an important role in regulating brain activity, thus characterizing the brain as more of a biological model than a computer. Sylwester states (1995) " Emotion and attention are the principal preliminary processes that our body/brain uses in its effort to survive (and even thrive) in the face of continual challenges" (p.71.). According to Sylwester, emotion is very important to the educative process because it drives attention, which drives learning and memory. Sullivan (1994) did research on the effects of fragrance and found that upon receiving a whiff of peppermint the right side of the brain became activated. In 1997, Herz conducted several studies on the effects of odor on memory. In one study three odorants (osmanthus, peppermint, and clean fresh pine) were used to study the effects of odor as a cue in context dependent memory. When a novel odor, in particular osmanthus, was present at encoding, retrieval of new words was better than when an expected odor like clean fresh pine. A distinctive odor was an effective retrieval cue, but a nondistinctive odor was not.

Recall was further enhanced if the distinctive odor was present at both encoding and retrieval session. Herz (1997) also studied the effect of odor, emotions, and memory of college students. This research revealed that students who received instruction in a heightened state of emotion (for example, taking an exam) in the presence of an odor retained information longer. Kemp, Avery, and Gilbert (1997) conducted research and found that weak odors were associated with light colors in relating the effect that fragrance has on student behavior. While working with plants students are actively engaged and moving around. Keeping in mind how children learn is vital for enhancing long term memory and attention. Moore (1997) states that one aspect of children’s learning that is overlooked is the value of play. The physical environment is the medium through which the child learns through his or her senses.

Psychologist Edward Deci (1986) studied self-esteem and highlighted three needs that provide direction for fostering self-esteem and motivation among students: (1) to belong and feel connected; (2) to feel autonomous and have a sense of self-determination; and (3) to feel competent. Many troubled youth do not fit into the school environment as the schools are structured now. Brooks (1994) notes that many at-risk children experience feelings of hopelessness. Keeping these thoughts in mind I designed the garden project in an effort to help these students fit in at school. They are now known as the School Beautification Committee instead of students from the resource room.

Gardening is multisensory and involves movement. Many gardening activities teach socialization skills, sequencing, planning, cause/effect relationships and relating to nature. These are important skills that students with attention difficulties need to learn. Joyful activities, which make learning fun yet challenging, should be incorporated into the curriculum.

Five special education students were selected from the interrelated resource room. These students all displayed characteristics of attention problems and behavior disorders. JH, described at the beginning of this article, has many behaviors that impede not only his learning but that of others as well. Four other students with behavior problems are described below. Based upon student’s individual difficulties my teacher’s aide and I set goals for the gardening unit. JH’s, goals for instance, were to develop the ability to nurture by caring for the plants, reduce verbal abuse to peers and teachers, roaming the room and to increase work completion.

GR is a third grade male being served in the resource room for Behavioral Disorders. He has an explosive temperament and receives medication daily. When provoked or when the medicine is wearing off he becomes easily agitated and will fly into a rage with little provocation. At such times he may have to be isolated in a time-out room. GR’s usual response to the time-out room is to scream obscenities and kick the door. He is a foster child who requires a highly structured setting. . GR has the following goals during the garden intervention: to control tantrums, inflexibility, and bossiness.

RM is a fifth grader also being served for Behavior disorders. RM is a noncompliant student who engages in power struggles with his teachers. He refuses to do his work and often enters the room knocking chairs and desks over while muttering obscenities. His academic skills are on a first/second grade level. He is has been absent from school 30 days this year. His target behaviors include increasing school attendance, reducing noncompliance and work completion.

AD is also a fifth grade student with behavior disorders. He receives medication twice daily and when it is late he puts a scowl on his face and begins to pace and eventually is very likely to run from the classroom. On one occasion he struck at the teacher before running from the room. He is on probation for shoplifting. His academic level falls in the third grade range. His goals include reducing non-compliant behavior, running from teachers, and increasing work completion.

SS is the only female participant. She is a second grader who was placed in the resource room for her fits of temper. While in the regular first grade classroom she hurled a chair across the room narrowly missing the teacher. As to be expected the teachers removed her from the classroom until a behavior management plan began to take effect.

During the winter I began introducing indoor plant activities by planting Narcissus bulbs in pots to assess possible interest. I knew gardening was having an affect on student attitudes when SS’s bulb began to sprout and she wanted to take her "baby" out on the playground with her. Convinced that it was a worthwhile study by the students’ interest in watering and caring for the plants, I began planning the action research.

Pretests were administered to assess prior knowledge of plants, plant vocabulary, and plant care skills. A modified self-concept questionnaire was used as well a sociometric data questionnaire administered prior to and following plant interventions to measure changes in friends and self-concept attitudes. Goals of behavior were written for each student in accordance with their Individual Educational Plan. Following winter break we studied plants by doing worksheets for one week to compare acquisition of knowledge using worksheets versus gains in plant knowledge following the intervention. Each participant was assigned a 6’x6’ raised bed. Being the smallest, SS was in charge of the bulbs, JH found worms, AD grew vegetables and RM became a peppers expert. The lesson plan that was written was tossed as Mr. B., my male paraprofessional, began a complete overhaul of the raised beds. Each Monday, Wednesday and Friday we went to the raised beds to work.

TABLE 1

As of now we have met six times to revitalize our outdoor garden. We meet on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10:00-10:30 AM.

TABLE 2

It is important to note that functional activities such as planning a garden help students see relevance. As we worked, plans had to be discarded to accommodate our goals for the garden. We built the curriculum based upon changes that were noted. On the third session we had to prune a rosemary bush to remove landscape timbers. This led to a discussion of herbs and how to root them. An experiment was designed to see if the branches would root in water or soil fastest.

Safety was clearly an issue because they were working with tools that could become instruments of danger. RM especially required constant direction about the importance of keeping tools out of walkways and not throwing tools.

Data was collected to assess changes in behavior and friendships over a period of six weeks. The data shows behavior traits before the garden intervention, on days that we went to garden and during the thirty-minute garden session (shown as during). Behavior in the garden was documented and compared with classroom behavior.

The children seemed to enjoy the tedious work of shoveling mounds of dirt to go into the raised beds. They were able to find simple pleasures like finding worms and counting them while we worked. We got the 5 raised beds ready and decided to get the 4 square foot beds ready as well but these were filled with weeds. This activity served as a good opportunity to set realistic goals. These children all displayed characteristics of not sticking to task so instead of clearing all 4 beds we decided to clear one bed at a time setting time goals for the other three. We discussed how to set realistic goals and stick to task until we finished one bed at a time. These students typically fail to see the relevance of school in a classroom setting but by working in a garden side by side we worked on functional tasks that laid a framework for the next task. They soon began to see that by working as a team we accomplished more and the fruits of their labor were clearly evident as these beds were transformed into the future homes of our plants. The garden beds became a place where we could dream about what we would plant. Work habits in the garden would hopefully spill over in time to the same habits in a classroom. Mr. B drew parallels to how a student performs jobs in the garden to doing their assigned work in the classroom.

TABLE 3

GR was very enthusiastic about working in the garden.

RM the student with the most severe behaviors in the classroom was the most receptive to caring for plants. RM showed gains in all selected goals.

TABLE 4

On his own without teacher direction he nursed the tiny seedlings until they were ready to be transplanted. This response was unexpected and very gratifying. Working in the garden also fostered healthy relationships between teacher and child. I enjoyed working with RM because of his enthusiasm whereas Mr. B developed a closer relationship with AD.

AD also showed improvement in behavior following the garden project.

TABLE 5

SS was the only female and while she was in the garden she was pleased to allow the boys to help her out.

TABLE 6

Perhaps the most important result of the garden experience was that gardening became a shared experience between teacher and child. We were able to use going out to the garden as incentives to complete his work on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

There were some weaknesses in the study however. Scheduling in school settings is difficult because it is often unpredictable. JH was seldom available at the time I could work with him so he was not able to begin with the rest of the group. He often missed garden time because he was on "In School Suspension".

Table 7

Directions were set in a conversational and planning mode instead of a teacher just giving the commands. The children enjoyed being outdoors and so far we hadn’t even planted the first seed!

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