Orienteering Programs for Special Needs Youth ?

[Gord Hunter]

Hello Club Leaders,

Do any of you know of programs for students who have conditions such as ADD/ADHD and dyslexia, on the Autism spectrum, Downs Syndrome, other special needs that might be helped by some exposure to orienteering? If so could you point me in their direction?
Do you know of programs already on the go to help special needs students gain learning skills, decision making skills and fitness, etc through orienteering.
In Florida we have a hearing impaired teacher who has incorporated orienteering into the outdoor ed program for her similarly hearing impaired students. She says they love it and the orienteering is a big confidence builder.
I ask because last night in my Facebook cruising I came across an ad for a summer camp for students with certain special needs. I searched for their grounds and if ever there was to be a campus/ forest suited to orienteering learning that is it! 

If I were an orienteering leader I would surely be wanting to work with them first to help the students, second to have access to their grounds for my club's programs.

All the best,

Gord Hunter 

Suncoast Orienteering (but a day away from making my seasonal move northward)

941-290-9642 (a 12 month/ year number)

[Barb Bryant]

We've used Navigation Games' progression of introductory activities in programs that include children with various special needs.

The progression does not start with map reading, but rather establishing boundaries, exploring, gathering, finding things, using a clue sheet (but no map), drawing your own map, and simple maps like our Geometric-O. We also make isometric drawing "maps". All of that leads up to being able to read an orienteering map.

We've been able to engage well with the students, especially if we take the time to go through at their pace, and respond to their ideas for variations.

Our progression (Boundary - Gather - Explore & Gather - Find Animals - Use a Cluesheet - ...) works with most humans of any age -  you just adjust the speed and how you present it for your audience.

Barb

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[Tori Campbell]

Gord,

  When I was in education grad school, I researched how neurodiverse learners might learn orienteering differently (inspired by teaching our own family's different learner, who, at 18 years old, now completes Brown courses independently...and helps his dad make maps. Not at all what you'd expect from his special education label). I don't have the bandwidth to take on any additional projects and it's not easily accessible to someone outside of education, but I'd be willing to share my work with an educator who wanted to put together curriculum for such a program.

-Tori

Tori Campbell

President

Orienteering USA

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[Dmitriy Zamoshchin]

Hello Gord, 

Here are my two cents. 

I overheard that autistic people sometimes have unexpected talents. I would like to offer you free navigational game and hope that could serve as a initial step in learning navigation and spatial awareness. It's simple to learn in easy mode and does not require any previous knowledge. Hint in the rules page. I hope it could assistant in your challenge. Let me know if you have any questions.

https://globusgame.com/chaincountries

Dmitriy 

c. 720-220-7518

[James]

About 2 years ago the Vulcan Orienteering Club got a call to help with a special needs group. They pretty much covered all types. This was during the summer which is not great for orienteering but that's the only time they could do it and they wanted to drive to Birmingham and get some exposure to orienteering. Anne and I made a very simple, easy course of five controls that proved to be too many. If we were to do it again we would put out less controls. They were all basically yellow controls but we made a few hard ones since we were going to be with them. At first some of them would not even get off the bus. Then later they all came and sat at the table and listened to our class about orienteering. Once they got into the woods they all seemed to have a really great time. We split them into two groups and Anne took one and I took the other. Anne's sister worked in special Ed for her entire career. So we got a lot of advice on what we thought they could or could not do. It was very successful and I hope they come back sometime.

James Pilman 

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[Mike Minium]

While I (and my club) have not done anything specifically for special needs groups, I've had several students with special needs do very well with my orienteering team. 

These have included, but not limited to dyslexic (one take-away was that he preferred symbolic clues to textual, even at white and yellow level, and at NREs we arranged for symbolic description sheets for him), diabetic, congenital heart failure (went on to JWOC after having a second heart transplant at 16!).

I have had many young orienteers with varying levels of ADD, ADHD, SPD, milder levels of autism spectrum.   Several have done very well at orienteering even while struggling in traditional classrooms.

Mike Minium

On Apr 20, 2026, at 5:05 PM, James <jimp...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Barb Bryant]

I love "At first some of them would not even get off the bus." :-)   

I think that is a key part of working with a diverse population: you get to meet them where they are, and adapt.

I should mention that Orienteering USA's Youth Mapping Project is a good way to get maps made for camps now.

Orienteering USA is also supporting outreach to educators through conferences.

For example, Emilee Vizenor (MNOC) and Bridget Hall (NEOC) and I ran an orienteering workshop at a regional conference for camps. (American Camp Association). One thing led to another, and now we have a page on their website, have sent out a blog post or two on their channels, and are going to record a podcast soon. 

Navigation Games (Kieran Woods of NZ & Evalin Brautigam from Team USA) designed a program for camps last year in partnership with Camp Belknap in NH (mapped by Jim Arsenault of UNO). It's generalizable, and we've got an overview at this page intended for summer camps.

As mentioned previously, the Navigation Games activities build gradually toward navigating with an orienteering map, and you go at the pace of the group.

We are seeking other orienteers to help with these projects.

With appreciation,

Barb

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[Gord Hunter]

I regret that this message has been sitting in my draft folder for a couple of weeks. 

Thanks Mike and others.

I'm glad to hear things are going on. 

Here is my situation.

In my Facebook I received an ad about a summer camp for youth with ADHD and related special needs such as dyslexia.

They mentioned the camp programs but did not mention orienteering. Why not? Could their campers benefit from orienteering? Could similar camps benefit from orienteering? I did a google search and Google Earth search for the camp which turns out to be at a school of the same name.    What a grounds and forest they have! What would a map look like! Great, it turns out! It's in New England so of course there are stone walls and open woods, trails show up on the LiDAR, as well. 

The thing I see is that if there are people who want to grow the sport of orienteering then they/we have to start cramming the word into more nooks and crannies of America. Name recognition!  In this regard we should stop thinking of orienteering just as a series of competitions but as a series of activities, including social and learning activities at the base of a wide pyramid that culminates at a competitive pinnacle. 

Part of that pyramid base is to get orienteering into as many schools, camps and recreation departments as we possibly can. 

Orienteering USA has been presented with an open door with that American Camps Association inviting orienteering into their camp programs. I hope clubs are taking advantage of what beckons. They may not have enough land for an NRE but perhaps the camps can teach the young, hold a scout or JROTC competition or a local club event. 

For the clubs, the more events you can hold on the more different venues the better return and retention rate you will see with your members.

But where do the special needs youth come into this? In my view to forge through what they are facing they have strength and they probably have great parental support. Looking selfishly from the orienteering point of view bring in the great kids with special needs and you will be bringing a great group of parents there to help the youth and the activity they are growing to like.   And every interaction brings orienteering into a few more people's vocabulary.  

I am interested in the 'special needs' community because that is what presented itself on my Facebook page. It is a great place to start . I would like to know more about how  Mike Minium energized his special needs students and groups, are there do's and don'ts to keep in mind but also are there ways to approach those that run the camps to say this is what we can do for your programs and in return can your camp do this for us? 

What do you think would be the reaction of the camp and school if I made a 'cold call' sending them a copy of a draft map and urging them to include orienteering in their activities. Should I give a head's up to the closest orienteering club first?

Thank for your interest.

Gord Hunter

Suncoast Orienteering

On Monday, April 20, 2026 at 05:39:50 p.m. EDT, Mike Minium <mikem...@gmail.com> wrote:



[Andrea Schneider]

I had replied only to Gord, have added my initial reply at the bottom.

I have gone to the Field trip expo in MN 2012-2020 (expo was just before covid hit). All kind of activity coordinators were there to find ideas for their programs, primarily schools and home schools, but also other groups, even retirement homes.

There are various things I took away from that:

- what is your scope? Mine was to bring an activity to the programs that taught ALL about map navigation and orienteering. Meaning that if I was teaching somewhere, then I needed to reach out to tell them to include their differently abled.

- I removed "cunning running" and such labels from my booth because some facilitators would take a look and immediately assume their audience would not be able to do it and not even stop to talk.

- Many summer programs have dedicated young educators, but the majority are there for just a summer job and are happy to have a presenter there and don't get engaged themselves. One has to work much harder to keep students engaged if their leaders are not. 

- the hundreds of classes I taught in 8 years turned into virtually no attendants of MNOC events. All the maps I created for the programs had club information on the maps, I always mentioned to the students to share the info with the parents and that I look forward to seeing them in the parks - told them they would get to use e-punches like I had

- students asked if they could keep the SiCard - because they are so used to get a little thing from presenters. Maps were apparently not enough to bring home about the activity (being cynical here)

My experience at MNOC and as adaptive Ski instructor that I shared w Gord, might come in handy to someone when looking at adaptive orienteering:

Johnson Aerospace and Engineering Senior High School (Saint Paul, MN) has had at-risk as well as differently abled students they have consistently brought with their JROTC team to MNOC events.

You may want to talk to adaptive instructors from other sports how to build awareness and knowledge to incorporate into orienteering. I was a PSIA adaptive ski instructor (and cert children's) instructor, and much of my knowledge from skiing easily transferred to being an aerial adventure guide or teaching orienteering in schools. Much of the adaptive skills as an instructor are easily transferred to other sports.

We had some other schools following Johnson's model before Covid hit, still struggling to recover from the losses to orienteering, but before that we started incorporating allowing for league scoring while being shadowed. Not every skilled cadet is fast, so we had some that actually enjoyed being shadows.

When teaching in schools I always made sure to ask ahead of time about different needs, as well as whether they had other students who were more keen on being helpers than winners. It always worked out great. I have had kids in wheelchairs, with prosthetics, cerebral palsy, visually impaired, on the spectrum, directionally challenged (I am a switched lefty, I still sometimes get verbal cues of left and right  wrong, but not when looking at a map), so understanding those things and adapting as an instructor to the different learning styles helps with teaching orienteering, too. I always made sure that a student does not get excluded, and students from schools who foster peer helpers and inclusion always did awesome  In skiing, too.

Andrea

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[maver...@gmail.com]

Like Andrea, I had replied privately to Gord, and later to Barb Bryant after her reply mentioning Navigation Games’ applicability to this topic.

 

I am currently pursuing the possibility of implementing a Navigation Games curriculum at a school in Upstate South Carolina whose mission is to serve K-8 students with learning differences.  I’ve conversed with the headmaster, who is anxious to know more but is schedule-challenged for a few more weeks with end-of-school-year demands.  He asked me to send materials and to follow up with him later this month, with the goal being to get a meeting with Barb to discuss the benefits that the Navigation Games progression can provide to his students.

I’m hopeful that this will work out, as there is an excellent fit and The Dyslexia Initiative lists over 150 similar schools in 38 states across the country.

 

Mike

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