Kids in space, or why a breath of fresh air does us all some good

How children move around in space—their “spatial behavior”—changes based on who they are with (in particular, their parents), where they are, and what they are doing: This conclusion from research conducted jointly by different departments at University College London might seem a bit more than obvious at first. For some parents of autistic children, though, this finding from a project called “Children’s Activities, Perception and Behaviour in the Local Environment” (CAPABLE) may be of particular interest: My son Charlie responds in varying ways to the spaces he is in. He smiles when I say we are going to somewhere like Target but, once inside such “big box” stores—also Toys ‘R’ Us or Best Buy (not his favorite, and visited once quickly in his lifetime)—Charlie hunkers down over the shopping cart, his eyes seem bigger (and wary), and he body tenses. He does better in smaller stores with about ten or twelve aisles and he is most at ease either outside or (as is the case with our house, as his room and mine are a few feet from the garage and the driveway) when he can go at will from inside to outside, and quickly. “No running space for Charlie,” was Jim’s comment as we passed several nicely restored brownstones on our walk in Brooklyn on Monday.

As noted in today’s Science Daily, the UCL research was “conducted in response to a number of recent changes in children’s lifestyles, such as increased car reliance, fewer opportunities for ‘free play’ and greater adult supervision.” I suspect we’re not the only family with an autistic child—with a child—who (in the US, at any rate) semi-lives in the car. I no longer have to drive Charlie regularly from therapy appointment to therapy appointment but there was a time when I did, and Charlie is certainly always glad to buckle himself into his spot in the middle of the backseat of the car.

The research is from a joint project conducted by the UCL Centre for Transport Studies, the UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), the UCL Bartlett School of Planning and UCL Psychology. According to Science Daily:

195 children aged eight to eleven from schools in Hertfordshire were recruited after filling out an initial questionnaire about their travel and activity habits and consent received from their parents. The children were then supplied with lightweight GPS monitors to track their movements and activity monitors to measure the calories they burned. They also had diaries to log the details of their activities – where, when and how they travelled, with whom, and for what purpose.

Once the results from the diaries, GPS and activity monitors were collated and reconciled, the researchers created innovative realisation methods that animate the child’s movements in real time on a map as they participate in various activities. ………..

Three measures were used for more detailed analysis: speed of movement, intensity of activity and mean angle turned, or sinuosity. The children were found to move faster and be more energetic on the road than on open space, but tend to move in a more sinuous way on open space. They move faster when at clubs than walking or playing. A different picture emerges when energy consumption is considered, with walking being the most energetic and being at clubs the least. Children tend to move most sinuously when at clubs on open space, which is probably sport, and least sinuously when walking, especially on roads.

[Project leader Professor Roger] Mackett said: “Being with an adult affects children’s spatial behaviour. They tend to walk faster, more energetically and straighter when with an adult. Without an adult they tend to ‘potter about’ in a much more exploratory way. Whilst speed has its benefits, there is a need for children to explore the environment at their own pace, gaining experience and learning about the world.”

Professor Mackett noted the increased scheduling of children’s lives (and my son’s time is, indeed, very scheduled) results in “‘little time for free play or going out gaining experience from making decisions about where to go and whether it is safe to cross the road, and form social interaction with other children’” (for my son, learning to cross the street and to interact with other children requires, supervision by a therapist or myself is necessary). The study reminds me of the importance of (as Autism Diva posted back in March) down time for Charlie—for time to walk under the pine trees in the front yard and see what patterns the pine needles make when he walks in them. It is the case that, when Charlie was younger, I worried that “down time” meant “stim time” equals “not learning time.” The pacing or running or jumping that Charlie likes to do seem more and more means for him to take the sort of “sensory break” one gets from going on a walk after an afternoon of typing, from taking that proverbial breath of fresh air.

It’s always a good thing to remind oneself of what sort of blue (or other hue) the sky is today.