Wild by Nature woodland experience, enriching play areas in Lancashire

wild by nature woodland experience lancashire

Round pegs, or square holes?

I am sure that when expecting a child, many of us had a version of what we thought family life would look like. I laugh when I think back to my instagrammable dreams of matching family wellies, baby groups, and lunch dates. Only for me, and I am sure many of you, this isn’t quite what life looks like now.

Review

by Amy Blackburn

- June 12, 2025

Structured activities don’t cut it

They say you don’t know what you don’t know, but had I known, it would have been clear from about five weeks in that my baby wasn’t one for organised activities. Being a person who loves a plan myself, it threw me a bit when my baby hit the roof every time I tried to get him into any kind of structured mum and baby environment.

Lying in a draughty children’s centre being massaged, being used as a body weight at a mum and baby exercise class, shoving his hand into clay for art – none of this held quite the same charm as being pushed along in his pram listening to the wind blow through the trees.

As time went on, it became clearer that he didn’t communicate or play in the same way as other children. A diagnosis of ASD and probable ADHD followed, and since then we’ve been wrangling with the question we’ll no doubt be asking for many years to come.

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What is best for him – “normal” or specialist? Education, activities, holiday clubs, hairdressers…even clothing. What’s more inclusive, trying to adapt to mainstream and both teach and learn from your neurotypical peers, or attending specialist provisions that are better attuned to your needs? It’s the million dollar question.

Promoting accessibility

There’s not going to be one size fits each family, and let’s be honest, what fits your family one morning may not work later that day. Special needs parenting is constant horizon scanning, problem solving, strategising and negotiating for the best experience at any given time – yes it’s excellent for your CV, but it’s also completely exhausting.

What we’ve finally settled on (but what might not always work for us), is finding those provisions that don’t advertise themselves as specifically for SEN families, but instead promote accessibility for all and who are committed to making the experience something everyone can enjoy or be involved in.

We won’t be the only family who’ve been through five hairdressers before finding one who understands that spraying water and trying to put a cape on an autistic child is a sensory nightmare. She’s not an SEN trained hairdresser. But she gets it. Opening a little bit earlier for us so there’s no hairdryer noise from other clients, leaving the cape on the peg…these little things are what can bring all our children comfortably into the mainstream world if that’s what we choose.

We’re currently working our way through different types of swimming lessons at a rate of knots, alternating class size, time of day, having an autistic instructor…but in my heart I know that for him to thrive in a pool environment he’s probably going to need one on one teaching eventually.

wild by nature woodland experience lancashire

Wild by Nature Woodland Experience

But our biggest success to date has been a recent discovery. We’ve found an outdoor play provision that provides all the sensory fulfilment a curious, bright little boy could want – but it’s not in his face, and there’s no timeframes, no pressure, no rigid structure.

Wild by Nature Woodland Experience, a Lancashire-based woodland play experience CIC opened in 2023, and with it, we found the first place completely suited to us as a family. Children roam within the safe confines of the woodland environment, self-selecting areas and items of interest to play and learn with, and our little boy has been mesmerised by their potion making stations ever since.

wild by nature woodland experience lancashire

They’re not an SEN organisation, but their whole ethos is inclusivity at every level, and add in fresh air and smores for the kids… Wild by Nature is pretty much the perfect place for us as a family.

Only you know what will work for you, but there’s no right or wrong approach when it comes to where to go. Our people and our places are out there. We just have to look a little bit harder.

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