Occupational Therapy with the Marine Program: Improving Self-Efficacy and Social Life Skills of Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders

The Marine Program, which takes advantage of nature in Okinawa, was offered to children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs). This study examined the effectiveness of the regularly scheduled Marine Program by focusing on the perceptions of parents based on their involvement with children with NDDs. The subjects and methods included footprints from the records of three cases, results of questionnaires filled by parents of 27 children (All boys), and text mining of interview data from nine parents. The parents perceived that the Marine Program was most effective in improving the physical aspects of the children followed by communication and behavior. Out of the 33 words in the text mining co-occurrence network, the sub-network indicated by eighth words centered on himself and staff suggested the role of the program in sublimating the accumulated frustration of the participants. Moreover, the sub-network of seven words from himself to empathy and speaking via feeling is inferred to represent the social life skills that the parents perceived in their children. These findings suggested that Marine Program improved the self-efficacy and social life skills of the participants