Our Approach

Little Fern Forest was founded by Emily Bryce, OTR/L, a licensed and registered occupational therapist with extensive experience in sensory integration and neurodiversity-affirming care. Emily is certified in Ayres Sensory Integration and Therapeutic Listening, and specializes in supporting neurodivergent children, including those on the autism spectrum, PDA profiles, ADHD, and children with sensory or toileting challenges. As the owner, founder, and lead OT at our flagship Indianola location, she has designed a nature-based early learning program enriched by occupational therapy consulting, sensory consulting, and coaching services, as well as professional training for parents, educators, and therapists, equipping everyone with the tools to help each child thrive.

Our Eastside educational programming is led by Kimberlee Kelly, M.A.Ed, a credentialed educator with expertise in English language learners from preschool through adult. Kimberlee brings a social justice-centered approach to early childhood education, designing inclusive, identity-affirming, and neurodiversity-affirming learning environments. She leads program development and expansion of forest school programming and creates outdoor classrooms that foster equity, community-building, and collaborative learning. (This location is actively seeking a new OT; formal services will resume shortly— Join our wait list)

Our Pedagogy

At Little Fern Forest, our pedagogy blends the Cedarsong Way with pediatric occupational therapy frameworks, creating a nature-immersed, child-led, and inclusive learning environment for all children, supporting both neurodivergent and neurotypical learners. Our team includes educators, occupational therapists, and community providers such as speech-language pathologists, ensuring children receive individualized attention within small-group, mixed-age classrooms.

We have experience supporting children with:

Autism spectrum conditions, including PDA profiles
ADHD, Inattentive (ADHD-I), Hyperactive-Impulsive (ADHD-H), and Combined (ADHD-H)
Sensory processing differences (SPD) and sensory integration needs
Separation Anxiety
Gravitational Insecurity
Toileting challenges (no potty training required)

Key principles guiding our pedagogy include:

Nature Immersion – Extended, uninterrupted outdoor time in all seasons to build connection with the natural world.
Child-Led Flow Learning / Emergent Curriculum – Activities emerge from children’s curiosity and interests, fostering autonomy and motivation.
Inquiry-Based Teaching – Teachers ask open questions and scaffold exploration rather than prescribing outcomes.
Place-Based Education – Learning is rooted in our forest and local community, fostering belonging and stewardship.
Environmental Stewardship – Children learn to care for and protect their surroundings.
Neurodiversity- and Identity-Affirming Practices – Supports children of all developmental profiles, sensory needs, and identities, encouraging collaboration and empathy in mixed-age, mixed-neuro classrooms.
Social-Emotional and Self-Regulation Support – OT-informed strategies for co-regulation, emotional awareness, and conflict repair, integrated throughout play and exploration.

Our programs are designed as developmental enrichment and educational experiences, not custodial child care, with no child enrolled for more than four hours per day on a regular basis. While our Occupational Therapist deliver formal OT services, all staff approach children through an OT-informed lens, providing co-regulation, sensory support, motor skill development, and social-emotional scaffolding.

Why Mixed Age, Neurodiverse, Identity-affirming Classrooms Matter

At Little Fern Forest, children learn together in a mixed-age, nature-immersed, sensory-rich environment where exploration, play, and curiosity lead the way. When neurotypical and neurodivergent children, including those with low- and high-support needs, learn alongside each other, everyone benefits in profound ways. Children of all genders, cultures, and identities feel seen and celebrated, while learning to respect and appreciate differences in others.

Here’s our inclusive forest classrooms support growth:

Promotes Empathy & Understanding: Children observe and interact with peers who experience the world differently—across age, neurotype, sensory preferences, and identity—developing empathy, tolerance, and appreciation for diverse strengths and approaches.
Fosters Social-Emotional Growth: Mixed-age and mixed-neuro interactions create rich opportunities for leadership, collaboration, and problem-solving. Younger children learn from older peers, and older children practice patience and guidance, all within a child-led, OT-informed, least-restrictive environment.
Encourages Flexibility in Thinking: Exposure to multiple ways of thinking, communicating, and engaging challenges children to adapt, experiment, and solve problems creatively, both individually and collaboratively.
Enhances Communication Skills: Children develop a wide range of verbal, non-verbal, and alternative communication strategies, including AAC, gestures, and speaking, while teachers model perspective-taking and scaffold understanding.
Builds a Sense of Community: Outdoor, child-led experiences foster cooperation, co-regulation, and caring for peers and the environment, creating a nurturing space where every child feels valued, supported, and included.

By blending mixed ages, neurodiversity-affirming, identity-affirming, and pediatric OT-informed supports in a nature-rich, child-led setting, Little Fern Forest nurtures curiosity, confidence, social-emotional skills, creativity, and empathy. Children learn to navigate differences, solve problems, communicate effectively, and thrive together—building the skills they need to succeed in a diverse, ever-changing world.

Our Model

Little Fern Forest provides a holistic experience for neurodiverse kids and their families through forest school, camps, therapy services, as well as parent and teacher coaching. Our team of therapy practitioners (OT, PT, SLP), teachers, and support staff host our programming at outdoor locations across Western Washington.

After seeing families thriving and kids meeting goals so much faster, we've launched more service locations under the Little Fern Forest umbrella. Now Little Fern Forest is in more communities, changing lives for more families — one outdoor adventure at a time.

Our Programs

All Little Fern Forest programs follow the Cedarsong Way, grounded in nature-immersion, play-based learning, and neurodiversity-affirming, identity- affirming practice.

Ratios are typically 1:5 and often 1:3 when additional support is needed and possible, with flexibility to meet each child’s needs.

Forest School (September-May)

30 months to 6 years

Forest School is a 4-hour enrichment program immersing children in nature, where they explore, play, and grow in a sensory-rich environment. Potty training is not required, and formal occupational therapy is available during forest school (most insurance accepted).

Summer Camps (June-August)

27 months to tweens*

Summer camps differ by location, running 3-4 hour camps with weekly themes. Our Jefferson Beach location offers themed camps, morning and afternoon for children 27m-tween. Our Eastside location offers morning themed camps for children 27m- 8 years. At both location, directors can make acceptions for older or younger based on developmental stage.

With an occupational therapy lens throughout, our approach honors each child’s individual needs, rhythms, and interests—meeting them where they are and guiding them in what they need to thrive. We foster sensory integration, social-emotional learning, flexibility, problem-solving, and a deeply curious relationship with the flora, fauna, and environment that surrounds us.

Radically Child-Led Learning in the Forest: Examples of Exploration and Growth

Leadership & Community Engagement

As active members of the American Forest Kindergarten Association. and the Washington Nature Preschool Association, Little Fern Forest engages in national and state conversations shaping forest-based education. Directors Emily Bryce and Kimberlee Kelly currently serve on AFKA’s Executive Board, contributing to leadership, standards, and advocacy in the field.

Our work is community-centered and relationship-driven, and we strive to create spaces where children, families, and staff all feel safe, respected, and supported. We explicitly welcome and celebrate LGBTQ+ families and gender-expansive children, ensuring our forest is a sanctuary where all family structures and identities are honored without question. We embrace the power of mixed-age and mixed-neuro classrooms where children develop empathy, communication skills, and resilience as they learn from one another. These spaces build connection and collaboration that prepare children for a diverse and inclusive world.

Imaginative Play

Children co-create an evolving forest narrative using loose parts, natural materials, and their shared experiences in the environment. A small group transforms a fallen log into a “forest train,” negotiating roles such as conductor, navigator, animal rescuer, or forest guardian. Nearby, another child creates a “wildlife clinic,” gently caring for a found feather or pinecone “patient,” incorporating real observations about animals and habitats.

As the play unfolds, children adapt storylines based on new discoveries—mud becomes “fuel,” sticks become tools, and a change in weather shifts the narrative (“the river is flooding—we need a bridge!”). Teachers support by narrating children’s ideas, modeling flexible thinking, and introducing ecological language (habitat, shelter, protection) when relevant.

Nature & Science

Children explore the creek and forest, noticing small details everywhere. An autistic, non-speaking child tilts a cup, letting water pour over the rocks, and gestures eagerly, eyes wide, showing how it changes direction. The water splashes softly, and they watch, mesmerized. Nearby, another child crouches to follow a worm across the trail, comparing its slow, wriggling motion to a shiny slug. Together, children test different ways to redirect the creek, moving sticks and stones, predicting what will happen, and watching the flow change. A young child accidentally brushes against a nettle, and an older child gently shows them how a fern can soothe it. Later, children harvest berries, sort leaves by size and shape, and discover tracks in the mud, whispering to one another about what they see. Every gesture, every observation, is noticed and shared, creating small moments of wonder and connection.

Through these investigations, children develop scientific thinking skills—observing carefully, predicting outcomes, testing ideas, and drawing conclusions. They strengthen cause-and-effect reasoning, problem-solving, sequencing, and attention to detail, while building fine and gross motor coordination and learning to collaborate, communicate, and reason with peers.

Early Literacy

Children explore the forest, sharing observations as they go. “Look, the creek moved this rock! The water is so fast today!” one child exclaims, while a 2-year-old points and signs “water,” joining the conversation with gesture. Nearby, a child narrates an adventure at the stick fort—“Ding, ding, ding! The firefighters are on the way!”—and grabs a stick to use as a pretend hose, explaining, “We have to put out the fire before it spreads to the trees!” Another child joins, adding new words: “Quick, the fire is near the animals!” Together, they act out the story, combining storytelling, gesture, and mark-making while practicing new vocabulary related to fire, water, safety, and nature. Along the trail, children sing familiar songs, inventing new verses, laughing as they play with rhythm and sound. Later, a child recounts to a friend how they helped reroute the creek, using words and gestures to show the steps, while another adds a new idea through pretend play. A child leafs through a picture book in the tent, explaining what’s happening in the pictures and “reading” it aloud to a nearby teacher. Another draws a map of the forest trail, exploring squiggly lines, circles, and squares.

All forms of expression are honored: children use gestures, drawings, pretend play, and AAC devices alongside verbal communication. Fine motor activities like painting, building, or arranging natural loose parts support hand strength, coordination, and the mechanics of writing for later school readiness. Through these rich, playful experiences, children develop vocabulary, expressive and receptive language, phonological awareness, storytelling and narrative skills, symbolic and early writing abilities, sequencing, social communication, turn-taking, perspective-taking, and fine motor coordination.

Early Math

Children explore the forest, each following their own curiosity and ideas. A child with ADHD naturally gravitates to heavy work, loading big stones into a small metal dump truck, counting each one before pushing it uphill to dump. Nearby, two children collaboratively build a small dam across a leg of the creek, stacking rocks and weaving sticks to slow the water, sharing their ideas with each other, testing each section, and adjusting placements to prevent leaks. Across the trail, another child is immersed in a construction site: sticks have become pipes, wooden blocks form the walls, and stones act as furniture as they refine the layout of their vet office, experimenting with balance and stability. At the mud kitchen, a 2-year-old signs “more water,” asking a nearby teacher to fetch a cup. They organize leaves and pinecones by size and shape and mix them together in a new muddy recipe. Meanwhile, children experiment with balance beams and ramps, rolling Douglas fir cones and stones, observing how slope and weight affect speed. They cheer and share discoveries, noticing one another’s ideas and occasionally combining efforts when new connections spark.

Through these playful experiences, children develop early mathematical thinking—comparing sizes, estimating quantities, noticing patterns, and exploring shapes. They strengthen engineering and problem-solving skills—building stable structures, balancing materials, reasoning about cause-and-effect, and testing solutions. Fine and gross motor coordination, spatial reasoning, attention, persistence, and collaborative skills grow naturally as children experiment and explore at their own pace.

Social Emotional Learning

A child with sensory challenges notices they feel overwhelmed by rain on their face and asks to take a break in the tent; a teacher helps remove wet garments, names their feelings, and models calm, while letting the child decide what to do next. A young girl arrives at school with her hair buzzed close to her head; she doesn’t like the feel of her hair on her ears or face, and the teacher celebrates her new haircut, noticing how much she enjoys it and affirming her choice. A child with PDA chooses not to join a digging and hoeing activity when another child asks if they want to help build a garage; instead, the teacher casually sets up a “discovery table” of large wooden blocks on a nearby stump and says, “I wonder how tall these can be stacked,” letting the child approach freely. The child begins experimenting, arranging the blocks into a bridge across the stumps, while the teacher narrates ideas aloud, modeling perspective-taking and celebrating all children’s projects without expecting them to merge ideas. Meanwhile, a child pulls a small picture booklet from their pocket and points to a sandwich, communicating, “I’m hungry.” The teacher observes and narrates, “I see that you’re hungry; let’s go get your lunch,” responding equally to all forms of communication. Over at the Lycra hammock, children disagree over whose turn it is; a teacher offers a visual timer, a rainbow that ticks down, to manage turns and suggests another nearby activity to help pass the time while they wait.

Through these interactions, children develop emotional awareness, co-regulation, empathy, perspective-taking, turn-taking, conflict resolution, and self-expression, while practicing communication, collaboration, and problem-solving in a safe, inclusive, neurodiversity-affirming, identity-affirming, nature-immersed, and child-directed environment.

Our Commitment to Community Health

Like the ecosystems we learn within, children are interconnected and impacted by their environment. In our dynamic outdoor setting, we are committed to protecting community health so that all children can explore, grow, and participate safely. Our commitment to health ensures that every child has the best opportunity to explore, engage, and connect with the environment and their peers.

While we’re deeply committed to the healing and transformative power of nature, our team consists of licensed occupational therapists and experienced educators who apply evidence-based, research-informed practices to support child health, development, and safety.

We recognize that even in our outdoor classrooms, where children spend time at tables, under tents, on play structures, or gathered together for nature observations, the close contact required for meaningful interactions can present opportunities for illness to spread. In alignment with our commitment to disability justice and protecting our most vulnerable community members, we follow state immunization guidelines/recommendations to ensure our forest remains a safe space for all.

We strive to provide a collaborative, neurodiversity-affirming, trauma informed team culture centered on mutual respect, consent based interactions, an child-led practice. As part of our inclusive approach to early education, we strongly encourage vaccination as a crucial step in safeguarding your child’s health and ensuring the well-being of our entire community. Vaccines protect not only your child but also others, particularly participants who are at increased risk due to immune system challenges and may be unable to receive certain vaccinations themselves. Maintaining high vaccination rates within our community helps create herd immunity, reducing the risk of vaccine-preventable illnesses spreading to those who are most vulnerable. By keeping children up to date on recommended lifelong vaccinations, as well as seasonal immunizations like COVID-19 and flu, we help create a safer environment where every child can explore, learn, and grow with reduced risk of preventable illness.

Leadership & Community Engagement

Our Land Acknowledgement & Commitment to Stewardship

Little Fern Forest operates on the traditional, unceded lands and waters of the Coast Salish peoples. We acknowledge that our Eastside school in Monroe sits on the ancestral home of the Skykomish, Snohomish (Tulalip Tribes), and Snoqualmie (sdukʷalbixʷ) peoples. Our Jefferson Beach school in Kingston sits on the ancestral home of the Suquamish (dxʷsəq̓ʷəbš) Tribe. We also honor the historical presence and enduring ties of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla, Cayuse, and Walla Walla to these regions.

We recognize that these Indigenous communities have lived in deep, reciprocal relationship with these forests and shorelines since time immemorial. We honor the enduring and thriving presence of Indigenous communities and acknowledge the ongoing impacts of settler colonialism and the forced displacement of these nations.

As a school, we are dedicated to evolving our understanding and actions. Through our commitment to place-based learning and environmental stewardship, we teach our students to be humble guests on this land, fostering a deep respect for the plants and animals that have been cared for by Coast Salish stewards for generations.

This is a living acknowledgment, and we will continue to learn and deepen our relationships with Indigenous communities in the places where we teach and learn.

Our Parent's Thoughts

"Emily has a remarkable ability to connect with my child on a deeper level, building a rapport based on trust and mutual respect. Her strong connection with my child has resulted in meaningful progress. The incorporation of outdoor activities not only provides a refreshing change of scenery but also fosters a sense of freedom and exploration that is truly empowering. I am immensely grateful for the positive impact and the invaluable support Emily has provided."

"Emily Bryce (of Little Fern Forest) holds a wealth of knowledge in neurodiversity and she welcomes it with open arms. I had never seen my child connect so quickly to a therapy provider, it truly warmed my heart and gave me hope for acceptance and growth together."

"One of my favorite things about Emily and her team is their inclusivity of siblings and family members to be present for therapy sessions and forest school sessions. As a parent of multiples this really eased the burden of coordinating so many appointments for my kiddos, also allowing me to be present and share the amazing moments of the outdoors with her and my child."

"I was enlightened to all nature has to offer in the way of Occupational Therapy, it really fulfills all the senses!

So many bright colors to See -

Animals and water to Hear -

Textures to Feel in plants, mud, or water -

Smells of fresh air, blooms, and farm animals -

Even berries to pick and Taste!

These are just a few examples but there are so many progress opportunities in nature!"

"I talk about Emily all the time. She is magic with children. She is incredibly skilled and knowledgeable especially with providing guidance on how to navigate the day to day challenges of parenting a neurodivergent child. And she delivers that guidance with a profound appreciation for the struggles -from both the parent and child’s point of view. She is our family’s best resource and guide in a deep sea of therapists and doctors."

"Emily has been one of the best things to happen to our family! As a parent of a neurodivergent kid, I had felt confused, overwhelmed, and lonely for many years. My daughter has now been enjoying one-on-one OT sessions, playgroups, and summer camps with Emily. I love tagging along because I learn lots of great tools every time I’m there. Emily is easy to be around and her sunny demeanor rubs off on us. It’s like our nervous systems take a deep breathe and long exhale being in her presence. She loves kids just as they are without any effort to “change” them. Trying to navigate the waters of raising up an ND kid is no easy task. Emily is a wealth of knowledge and has been there for me in countless ways. My daughter adores her and looks forward to any time she gets to spend with her. I think it’s easy to say she’s one of our favorite people!"

"Emily is great! Her knowledge from science based information plus hands on experience working with diverse kids gives her a wealth of tools to pull from. She’s helped my kiddo with sensory integration issues, as well as helped determine school accommodations and support. I learn something new every visit even just by sitting and observing, as she works with my teen. I can’t say enough good things about her work and the positive impact Emilys’s had on my child."

"Emily’s strategies for providing support and love for our neurodivergent sons have made a big difference for our family. The kids love visiting the sensory wonderland she’s created in her forest; as parents, we rely on her advice and parenting strategies."