LAST CHILD IN THE WOODS: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv

After many years of research, Edith Cobb published her influential book, "The Ecology of Imagination in Childhood".  She based much of her analysis on a collection of some three hundred volumes of autobiographical recollections of childhood by creative thinkers from diverse cultures and eras. She concluded that inventiveness and imagination of nearly all of the creative people she studied was rooted in early experiences in nature. 

Cobb wrote, "Creative thinkers return in memory to renew the power and impulse to create at its very source, a source which they describe as the experience of emerging  not only into the light of consciousness, but into a living sense of kinship with the outer world.  These experiences take place primarily in the middle years of childhood. Memories of awakening to the existence of some potential, aroused by early experiences of self and world, are scattered through the literature of scientific and aesthetic invention. Autobiographies repeatedly refer to the cause of this awakening as an acute sensory response to the natural world."

LAST CHILD IN THE WOODS: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv

"One might argue that a computer, with its near-infinite coding possibilities, is histories deepest box of loose parts. But binary code, made of two parts --X and O-- have its limits. Nature, which excites all the senses, remains the riches source of loose parts."

LAST CHILD IN THE WOODS: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv

"Children live through their senses. Sensory experiences link the child's exterior world with their interior, hidden, affective world. Since the natural world is the principle source of sensory stimulation, freedom to explore and play with the outdoor environment through the senses in their own space and time is essential for healthy development of an interior life. . . . This type of self-activated, autonomous interaction is what we call free play. Individual children test themselves by interacting with their environment, activating their potential and reconstructing human culture. The content of the environment is a critical factor in this process. A rich, open environment will continuously present alternative choices for creative engagement. A rigid, bland environment will limit healthy growth and development of the individual or group."  

- Robin Moore

LAST CHILD IN THE WOODS: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv

The Rise of Cultural Autism

In the most nature-deprived corners of the world we can see the rise of what might be called cultural autism. The symptoms? Tunneled senses, and feeling of isolation and containment. Experience, including physical risk, is narrowing to about the size of a cathode ray, tube or flat panel if you prefer. Atrophy of the senses was occurring long before we came to be bombarded with the latest generation of computers, high-definition TV and wireless phones.

LAST CHILD IN THE WOODS: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv

For years, James Sallis has been studying why some children and adults are more active then others. He is program director of the Active Living Research Program for the Robert Wood Research Foundation, a multi-year effort to discover how to design recreational facilities and whole communities so they stimulate people of all ages to be more active.

Based on previous studies, we can definitively say that the best predictor of preschool children's activity is simply being outdoors, says Sallis, "and that an indoor sedentary, childhood is linked to mental health problems."

The idea that natural landscapes, or at least gardens, can be therapeutic and restorative is, in fact, an ancient one that has filtered down through the ages. Over two-thousand years ago, Chinese Taoists created gardens and greenhouses they believed to be beneficial for health. By 1699, the book  English Gardener advised the reader to spend "spare time in the garden, either digging, setting out, or weeding; there is no better way to preserve your health.