Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Meeting children's diverse needs is essential for developing equitable, inclusive learning. Educators must address differences in children’s abilities, social and emotional needs, cultural backgrounds, language acquisition, and access to programming. ​

Universal Design for Learning Framework

 ​The Universal Design for Learning goals align well with outdoor and nature-based learning goals. ​

​According to Pikus et al. (2025), the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines, developed by CAST, are a good starting point for evaluating and designing programs that meet the diverse needs of children and families.

Cognitive & Behavior Disability Support

​Research shows teachers report children with cognitive and behavioral disabilities have longer attention spans and less disruptive behavior outdoors (Szczytko et al., 2018).

The UDL framework is a helpful tool to assist educators with reflecting on how to adapt content and lessons to meet the needs of children with disabilities.

​Example supports include:
  • providing experiences inside the classroom with natural materials to address different sensory needs, thus allowing children to become more familiar with the textures and smells of materials before experiencing them outdoors (Pikus et al., 2025).
  • use natural materials inside the classroom in different classroom areas and plan a lesson using natural materials (Pikus et al., 2025).
Researchers agree that children with disabilities should be included in outdoor activities, though the approach may differ depending on the children's needs and the program's design (Craig et al., 2024; Pikus et al., 2025; Kiviranta et al., 2024).

Careful planning is required and might include adding extra staff, for example, to help maneuver a wheelchair across bumpy terrain or assist children with behavior needs (Pikus et al., 2025). 

Multilingual Learner Support

 A study in 2017 by Cameron-Faulkner's showed that when children and caregivers engage directly in nature experiences, they use a wider variety of nature-inspired vocabulary. It would seem reasonable to theorize that outdoor and nature-based learning opportunities would help support language development for children learning more than one language.

The link to caregivers is pointed out in Ardonin & Bowers (2020) and Prins (2025), research where parents are identified as essential to children’s learning and development.

Similarly, one study on Spanish-English bilingual language development in toddlers in typical learning environments linked the warmth of the caregiver and exposure to a diverse set of words with positive vocabulary development (Gamez, et al., 2023).

Resources