Sensory garden desing for children with autism, case of Malatya İnönü University foundation special education and rehabilitation center

It is expected that people with autism who need Special Education and Rehabilitation Centers will socialize, strengthen their weaknesses, gain self-confidence, and show mental and physical development thanks to these centers. These people need sensory gardens specially designed for them to improve psychologically and physically and to participate in society. Therefore, in special education and rehabilitation centers, sensory gardens designed with the user group in mind are required in order to support the recovery of children with autism and to increase their sensory stimuli. In the study, the positive effects of sensory gardens within the scope of healing gardens on the development of children with autism were examined and the criteria to be considered when designing sensory gardens were determined. Although the number of people with autism is increasing day by day in our country, it has been seen that there are no sensory gardens designed for them, and even the studies on sensory gardens are few, and results and suggestions have been developed in this direction. In this study, autism was discussed in detail, the characteristics of sensory gardens and examples from the world were examined, in line with these, the needs of children with autism at the İnönü University Foundation Special Education and Rehabilitation Center (İÜÖRM) were determined and a design proposal was developed. The wishes and needs of children with autism, who are users, in their sensory gardens have been determined through on-site observations, literature reviews, questionnaires and interviews made in İÜÖRM. As a result, in the sensory garden design proposal, the needs and wishes of children with autism in the sensory garden and the functional areas that should be in the sensory garden for children with autism were determined, and the garden of İÜÖRM was designed in these directions.