FTHub ACADEMY COURSE
Nature-Based Support for Children and Young People
- THEME 4
- TRACK 4
SELF-PACED · ONLINE
- 3–5 hours
- 5 modules
- 1 video
- Certificate of Completion
- 1-year access
- Level: Intermediate
- English
99 €
49 €
Curated by
Jennifer Salinas
By the end of this course, you will be able to design and facilitate a developmentally matched, child-led nature session for a specific group of children or young people, integrating graded risky play and sensory adaptation within a defensible safety framework, for use in educational, clinical, or outdoor settings.
Outcomes
What you'll gain
- Design a developmentally matched, child-led nature session for a named group of children or young people, applying the FTHub Method to structure your activity design.
- Apply Sandseter's six categories of risky play within a written risk-benefit assessment that supports graded challenge and names the absolute limits that no benefit overrides.
- Adjust sensory load across arrival, transitions, and base setup using environmental design grounded in Ayres' Sensory Integration Theory, within your facilitation scope.
- Adapt your session across developmental stages, environments (full nature, urban, indoor), and group sizes using the course's Adaptation Framework.
- Communicate the evidence base for nature-based work with children to parents, referrers, and colleagues, drawing on the FTHub Liquid Interactions Model and the course's Evidence Summary Card.
Audience
Who is this course for?
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Educators, Forest School leaders, and youth workers: Build a developmentally matched, evidence-grounded approach to facilitating children and young people in nature, with a defensible risk-benefit position you can share with senior leadership and parents.
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Child and adolescent therapists: Extend your therapeutic work into the outdoor environment with structured tools for session design, sensory adaptation, and clinical communication with referrers and families.
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Occupational therapists: Use the natural environment as a richly resourced setting for the regulation, motor, and sensory work you are already qualified to do, with explicit adaptations for the child profiles you see.
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Prerequisite: Course 4-1 (Trauma-Sensitive Nature-Based Practice) or equivalent prior training.
Course Framework
Course structure
Experience first, then evidence, then application, then commitment. The module structure is the product.
0Orientation
- Course overview and how to use the course
- Self-assessment of your current practice with children in nature
- Setting your professional intention for a specific group
- The practice log used across all four content modules
1Foundation
- The Child’s-Eye Exploration: a 20- to 25-minute guided practice you complete yourself
- Affordances and loose parts (Gibson, Heft, Nicholson, Kyttä): mechanism and facilitation implications
- Attention restoration in children (Kaplan, Faber, Taylor, Kuo, and Wells): mechanism and facilitation implications
- Knowledge check
2Deep Dive
- Developmental stages and how facilitation changes across the early years, middle childhood, and adolescence
- Sandseter’s taxonomy of risky play and risk-benefit assessment in practice
- Sensory integration in the outdoor environment (Ayres, Dunn)
- Site-mapping practice and professional context worksheet
- Knowledge check
3Application
- Annotated worked example: a 60-minute child-led nature session for ages 6 to 8
- Design Your Own: a complete session template for your named group
- Integrative run-through and risk-benefit walkthrough at your delivery site
- Self-assessment rubric for your design
4Integration
- Integration reading: designing for the developing child in nature, through the FTHub Liquid Interactions Model
- Final reflection compared with your Module 0 baseline
- Your 30-day action plan with named commitments
- What I Learned competency checklist, usable as a continuing professional development (CPD) record
5Module
6Module
7Module
8Module
9Module
10Module
COURSE TOOLS
Professional Tools Package
Included in every course. These are not learning exercises — they are working documents you use with your clients, referrers, and colleagues. Available from Module 3.
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Activity Template
Complete facilitation script with timing, safety notes, and debrief questions. Three duration variants. -
Evidence Summary
Plain-language summary of findings and citations. For clients, HR, and referrers. -
Adaptation Framework
Checklist for adapting across client populations, environments (nature/urban/indoor), and group sizes. -
Client Communication Template
Ready-to-use briefing text for three professional contexts: clinical/health, educational, and tourism/outdoor.
Learning Pathway
Theme & Tracks
Where this course sits — and where it takes you next. This course is part of the following Theme and Professional Track(s).
Theme 4: Nature-Based Approaches for Specific Populations
Curator
About the instructor
Jennifer Salinas
Forest Bathing Guide (USA)
Jennifer Salinas is an educator, facilitator and certified Forest Bathing Guide passionate about helping people and communities reconnect — with nature, themselves and each other. Jennifer brings over 15 years of experience in early childhood education, leadership development and community-based facilitation. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Counseling Psychology and Art Therapy, as well as a Master’s degree in Early Childhood Education. Jennifer is especially inspired by the ways nature supports healing, resilience, reflection and belonging.
Evidence Base
Grounded in peer-reviewed science
Why this matters for your practice
FTHub Academy courses are evidence-informed at every step. The evidence is not decorative — each module connects theory to field practice using the same scientific frameworks underpinning the FTHub Method.
SELF-PACED · ONLINE
- 3–5 hours
- 5 modules
- 1 video
- Certificate of Completion
- 1-year access
- Level: Intermediate
- English
99 €
49 €
Curated by
Jennifer Salinas
Access
How to access this course
Three entry points — choose the one that fits where you are right now.
Individual purchase
49 €
99 €
- 1-year access
- Completion certificate
- Downloadable practice materials + Professional Tools Package
FTHub Academy Pro Monthly
60 €
/mo
Cancel anytime
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- Completion certificate
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- Downloadable practice materials + Professional Tools Package
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FTHub Academy Pro Annual
490 €
/yr
- Full library + Theme 11
- Completion certificate
- Monthly Public Event
- Downloadable practice materials + Professional Tools Package
- Monthly Live Online Call
- Hub Seedlings Pro Annual membership
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- 10% off FTHub training programs
Student Reviews
Ratings & Testimonials
4.9
Based on 312 reviews
5
88%
4
8%
3
5%
2
2%
1
0%
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"Placeholder — short, outcome-specific quote from a practitioner who launched their practice after FBG certification."
"Placeholder — short, outcome-specific quote from a practitioner who launched their practice after FBG certification."
Betty Fang
International Projects Director
“
"Placeholder — short, outcome-specific quote from a practitioner who launched their practice after FBG certification."
"Placeholder — short, outcome-specific quote from a practitioner who launched their practice after FBG certification."
Betty Fang
International Projects Director
“
"Placeholder — short, outcome-specific quote from a practitioner who launched their practice after FBG certification."
"Placeholder — short, outcome-specific quote from a practitioner who launched their practice after FBG certification."
Betty Fang
International Projects Director
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