Gardening helps to grow children’s skills

Gardening can help children with special educational needs (SEN) to express themselves and learn new skills, claims a study by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS).

Youngsters with SEN who took part in the RHS sessions learned gardening-based skills, such as planning, harvesting and using tools, as well as mentoring and enterprise. Teachers also said the pupils retained more information and reinforced what they had learnt in other subjects.

The study was based on evidence from projects attended by 130 students in six schools and alternative learning centres.

The findings also conclude that gardening helped the children to develop friendships, escape frustration, provided a practical way for them to get back into education and opened them to future prospects in the field.