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Nature-based Occupational Therapy for children with
sensory, learning, & attention differences 

Nature-Based Occupational Therapy in beautiful Bucks County, Pennsylvania

Focusing on your child's natural strengths. Creating successful camp experiences!

Craefting:
Confidence, calm, Connection

The Business

PLAY IS A CHILD'S WORK...
...CRAEFT IS A CHILD'S CALLING

Children are Makers, Naturally

A stick and a string become a fishing pole

A pile of rocks in a creek bed becomes a sculpture

Natural Strengths + "Just Right Challenge" + Nature

Improving Sensory & Motor Skills

Confidence-Building

Becoming Calmer

Getting More Connected

WITH FRIENDS, FAMILY, AND NATURE 

doing, being, becoming, belonging...

...Make the Doing MAtter!

-Wilcock, A. A. (1998)

In EVERY SESSION:

Wood Bridge Walking
child doing a craft
tea party

Making Moves

Nature Exploration & Hikes

Nature offers endless opportunities for sensory experiences & movement challenges...to improve strength, coordination, balance.

  • Reaching for that branch to use in a weaving project 

  • Scanning the wood-scape for that perfect color to make natural inks and dyes

  • Climbing up that hill to pick the fern or flower for eco-printing (and then rolling down that hill...of course!)

  • And some fun Circus-Arts in Nature...acro-balance, juggling, hulahoop, yoyo, etc.

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Fun, purposeful, energetic 

A great way to meet those sensory needs

Making craefts

Traditional Skills &
Heritage Crafts
for 
21st Century Skills  
​

​What are Traditional Skills  & Heritage Crafts?​

Meaningful & Real-Life activities

  • Natural materials

  • Open-ended, creative

  • Flexible process

​​

Why Traditional Skills &

Heritage Crafts?

  • Hand-eye coordination,  postural skills, motor planning

  • Problem-solving, planningorganizing, competence-building, flexible thinking,  & creativity

  • The Maker Mindset 

Making Tea

Tea Time

​A traditional social experience across cultures for centuries

A natural opportunity to work on

  • Social skills, emotional regulation & the executive skills needed for school and home life

  • Sharing, turn-taking, pacing, and cooperation, & effective communication

 

The teas offered are herbal, caffeine-free, organic,

 and grown & harvested in the Wildcraeft garden.

Water is offered as an alternative

OUR SPECIALIZED APPROACH IS INSPIRED BY:

Traditional Occupational Therapy Perspectives
Current Evidence-Based Practice
Sloyd and The Froebel Kindergarten
Charlotte Mason, Montessori, Waldorf
The Arts & Crafts Movement
The Maker Movement

"the hand is

the instrument

of intelligence"

...Maria Montessori

"when making crafts,

people progress through

a cycle of emotions from uncertainty to satisfaction,

pride, and a sense of efficacy

by the end."

...Emma Harris, BHScOT (Hons)

Acknowledgements and References Found on Essential Reading Page

Occupational  Therapy Services

Enrichment camps designed for

Elementary and Middle School-aged children.  Each day of our week-long day camp is guided by a specific traditional craeft/skill theme.

​

Sign up for one week...or more!  Each week's theme is unique, crafting a summer full of fun experiences of craefting and moving in nature!

Intensive, week-long, OT day camp sessions, Monday-Friday, 9-2:00, with a low 1:2 ratio,  adult to child, and a maximum group size of 4 children.  Groups are designed for children 7-12 years of age.

Each week-long camp is guided by a specific traditional craeft/skill theme.

OT Intensive Summer Camps are conducted by an experienced pediatric Occupational Therapist, accompanied by qualified

pre-OT/OT college student volunteers.

Our weekly small group OT service packages offer opportunities for your child to receive OT intervention within nature.

Following the same structure as our

OT Intensive Summer Camps, our Weekly Small Group OT sessions offers the convenience of once per week sessions.  

Sessions are 2.5 hours in length.

Saturday options are available. 

Need a plan for when School's Out?

School Holidays and  Holiday/Spring Breaks" don't need to be stressful or boring!

Or "School's Out" Mini OT Camps are fun and unique...while supporting therapy goals.

This is a great option for children who have attended our camps previously. 

For new families, a pre-mini camp session is necessary to establish a relationship and review/develop therapy goals.  

Our individual OT services packages offers an opportunity for your child to receive 1:1 therapy intervention within nature.  Our Wildcraeft Works approach will be implemented with the parent/caregiver and nature as co-facilitators.  Sessions are 90 minutes in length.

Afterschool and Saturday options are available. 

A modern take on the traditional knitting circle.

Designed to support your child with expertly curated craeft experiences at-home with our monthly Widcraeft Work activity boxes

...along with monthly gatherings of the

Wildcraeft Works Makers in our virtual Makerspace

for friendship, connection, and community

COMING SOON!

Want to add therapeutic crafting to your programming?

Designed to support your journey in exploring therapeutic crafting and its applications across a variety of settings.  Consultation services are flexible and can be crafted to meet your needs.

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Image by Robert Collins

Want to Learn more?
Schedule a
free Discovery call

15 min free

“Man, through the use of his hands,

as they are energized by mind and will,

can influence the state of his own health.”

ABOUT

Registered Occupational Therapist

Founder of Wildcraeft Works

Kathleen DeNault-Ridge, OTR/L, Occupational Therapist

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