Hydroponic Garden Helps Manchester Students With Autism Grow

MANCHESTER, NJ — Helping children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder connect with others is one of the skills that's part of every aspect of their education.

A pair of Manchester Township staffers found a unique way to help students grow both academically and socially through a life skills project that is teaching them and other students how to grow vegetables hydroponically and then serve the vegetables to other members of the school community.

The project at Whiting Elementary School was funded by a $3,339 grant from the NJEA Frederick L. Hipp Foundation for Excellence in Education. The grant paid for three hydroponic garden towers, a vertical composting garden tower, and kid-safe cooking equipment.

The garden project will promote a healthy lifestyle and while teaching children of all ages how to grow and prepare healthy foods for a healthy life.

"Our goal is to address activities of daily living and help these students gain more independence with life skills," said Stephanie Boyd, a speech language specialist who along with occupational therapist Melanie Anderson won the grant.

In November the students harvested lettuce grown in the hydroponic garden then filled salad orders for staff members at Whiting Elementary School as part of the program.

"I am working on basic conversational skills, eye contact, sentence structure and vocabulary with the students," Boyd said. Anderson, meanwhile, works on both fine motor and sensory skills with the students.

In addition the two started a formal garden club with the help of third-grade teacher Carol Webster, Boyd said. The students in the garden club work on the indoor hydroponic gardens, but they also helped clean up and prepare the school's outdoor gardens for spring.

"We are working collaboratively as a school, at all grade and ability levels, to implement this project and gain knowledge and understanding related to both gardening and nutrition," Boyd said.

Indoors, the students check the plants, monitor water levels and test the pH of the water. They also can compare the crops of the indoor hydroponic garden versus the outdoor garden with soil to determine benefits and disadvantages to both.

And the program pairs students who are neurotypical with those who have been diagnosed with autism for a variety of activities, from caring for the gardens and vegetables to writing recipes and preparing the food, to help all of the children grow.

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