Patterns of seated activity in sensory gardens among children educated in special schools

Abstract

This study investigated the seated activity among children educated in special schools and their adult carers in two sensory gardens in the United Kingdom. Seated activity was established whether the seating was used as intended or whether users preferred to sit on other attributes during their learning session. The objectives of this study are to explore opportunities for users' activity and their engagement with the attributes, whether activity is possible or if opportunities are not being actualised because of barriers. Observation and behaviour mapping methods were carried out alongside affordance theory. The outcome suggests that the number of users, the number of attributes and the total area of the zone did not relate to the median time spent per user; rather, it was the richness of the attributes that did so.