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

"Business people and politicians report less emphasis on nature experiences in early childhood than do artists."

"Nature presents the young with something so much greater than they are; it offers an environment where they can easily contemplate infinity and eternity. 

"As of this writing only seven states even require elementary schools to hire certified physical education instructors. This has occurred in a country where 40 percent of five-to-eight-year-olds suffer cardiac risk factors such as obesity"

"Now for some good news. Studies suggest that nature may be useful as a therapy for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), used with or, when appropriate, even replacing medications or behavioral therapies."

"Some researchers now recommend that parents and educators make available more nature experiences - especially green places - to children with ADHD, and thereby support their attentional functioning and minimize their symptoms."

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

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.

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

Richard Louv has a copy of a book named "Shelters, Shacks and Shanties" written by Daniel C. Beard in 1915. In his book Daniel C. Beard writes how he "epitomizes a time when a young person's experience of nature was inseparable from the romantic view of the American Frontier." But what really defined Beards' books, and the age they represented, is the unquestionable belief that being in nature was about doing something, about the experience -- and about not being a spectator.

"Most housing tracts, condos, and planned communities constructed in the past two to three decades are controlled by strict covenants that discourage or ban the kind of outdoor play many of us enjoyed as children."  

"The Scripps Ranch Community Association chased kids away from a little pond near the public library, where children had fished for bluegills since Scripps Ranch had been a working cattle spread many decades earlier. In response to the tightened regulations, families erected basketball hoops. Young people moved their skateboard ramps to the foot of their driveways. But the community association reminded the residence that such activity violated the covenants they had signed when they bought their houses. Down came the ramps and poles; and indoors went the kids. Game Boy and Sega became their imagination. Parents became alarmed. Their kids were getting fat."
 

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

"Unlike television, nature can not steal your time; it amplifies it. Nature offers healing for a child living in a destructive family or neighborhood. It serves as a blank slate upon which a child draws and reinterprets the culture's fantasies. Nature inspires creativity in a child by demanding visualization and the full use of the senses."




"Many members of my generation grew into adulthood taking nature's gifts for granted; we assumed that generations to come would also receive these gifts. But something has changed. Now we see the emergence of what I have come to call nature-deficit disorder. This term is by no means a medical diagnosis, but it does offer a way to think about the problem and the possibilities - for children, and for the rest of us as well."




"I think often of a wonderfully honest comment made by Paul, a fourth-grader in San Diego: " I like to play indoors better, 'cause that's where all the electrical outlets are."

-Richard Louv

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

"Within the space of a few decades, the way children understand and experience nature has changed radically. The polarity of the relationship has reversed. Today, kids are aware of the global threats to the environment - but their physical contact, their intimacy with nature, is fading."

"A kid today can likely tell you about the Amazon rain forest - but not the last time he or she explored the woods in solitude, or lay in a field listening to the wind and watching the clouds move."

"Yet, the very moment that the bond is breaking between the young and the natural world, a growing body of research links our mental, physical, and spiritual health directly to our association with nature - in positive ways. Several of these studies suggest that thoughtful exposure of youngsters to nature can even be a powerful form of therapy for attention-deficit disorders and other maladies. As one scientist puts it, we can now assume that just as children need good nutrition and adequate sleep, they may very well need contact with nature."