It boosts confidence, creativity, and cooperation as children play. It improves the body’s overall health and reduces allergies, anxiety, and symptoms of ADHD. Louv called it nature deficit disorder, and by naming it, he launched a worldwide movement and a basis for critical conversations.Īn exploding body of research tells us that time in nature is crucial to healthy human development. Thanks to Richard Louv, who gathered all the pieces and first presented them so compellingly in his book Last Child in the Woods (2005), we now have a term that describes what many of today’s children experience. When this drive is denied, and children don’t have the opportunity to form essential relationships with the natural environment, there are consequences for children’s physical and mental health and for their anxiety and stress levels. Humans have an innate need to seek connections with nature and other forms of life. Edward took piano lessons and skiing lessons and had a trampoline and jungle gym in his yard. He was allowed to go about 300 yards to the end of his block on his own, but often didn’t enjoy that because there were no other children outside. Edward, an 8-year old in 2007, was driven the short distance to school and taken by car to a safe place to ride his bicycle. The mother was an 8-year-old in 1979, and was allowed to ride her bike throughout the neighborhood and to the local pool, a half-mile away. In 1950, when the grandfather was 8 years old, he walked a mile on his own to play in the woods, and also walked to school. He regularly walked six miles on his own to his favorite fishing spot. When George, the great-grandfather, was 8 years old in 1926, he walked everywhere because his family could not afford a bike for him.

It compared four members of a family, each in a different generation, and their outdoor experiences at age 8. William Bird, published by Natural England and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. To illustrate this dilemma, consider a 2007 report by Dr. Distance or traffic can make access to play places difficult, which further separates children from these essential experiences of unstructured activity outside in nature. Many parents are afraid to allow their children outside unattended, and too busy to accompany them as often as needed. Depending on where a family lives, fears may be based on real danger outside the door, or created by media that escalates unrealistic worries. Academic pressures and parental fears are just two of the reasons for this shift. Many kids spend a great deal of time in front of screens and much less time than past generations playing outside. When you think back to your own childhood (especially if you are of a certain age), you probably remember spending a lot of time outdoors, roaming free, climbing trees, building stuff, and mucking in mud.Ĭhildren’s lives have become more structured and supervised.

Nature Play at Home by Nancy Striniste