Design consideration and construction process of children therapeutic garden

Abstract

Hospitalisation often erodes the feelings of toddlers and young children causing regressive behaviours and stress, which result in reduced cognitive performance, helplessness, restlessness, crying, anxiety, and elevated blood pressure. Having the ill children experiencing a garden setting, either in a passive or an active mode, can arouse their senses that nurture their inductive and deductive, motor-impulses development and reflective thinking capabilities. These interactions have resulted in psychological peacefulness and adjustment by the children including being more cooperative toward medication, less crying, more active and cheerful, and more obedient to caregivers. The outcomes are discovered in an experimental research done in year 2002 involving 360 paediatric patients experiencing the therapeutic gardens at two nucleus hospitals in Malaysia. Six design factors are considered to construct the garden: (1) spatial organisation and circulation, (2) garden setting, (3) sensory stimulation, (4) interaction of activities, (5) planting layout and composition, and (6) garden accessories. The garden is constructed in four steps including (1) demolition of existing garden, (2) preparation of base ground, (3) installation of garden accessories, and (4) planting work. The basis of constructing an effective garden for psychological well-being of ill children is relating the physical characters of the garden to the sensory stimulation of the children.