Nature Connections Vital

My parents used to tell me to go outside and play, but nowadays children are playing indoors more than ever.

Computers, television and video games, plus the fear of perverts and threats like skin cancer, Lyme disease and West Nile virus have drastically curtailed children's access to nature.

What happens when children lose their connection to nature? A 2002 British study reported that 8-year-olds could identify Pokemon characters far more easily than they could name "otter, beetle and oak tree." An awareness of and appreciation for the natural world is turning out to be more important for children than we thought.

Today's kids are increasingly disconnected from the natural world, says child advocacy expert Richard Louv, even as research shows that "thoughtful exposure of youngsters to nature can ... be a powerful form of therapy for attention-deficit disorder and other maladies." Louv is the author of the new book, "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder."

New research shows that getting outside and interacting with nature can offer powerful therapy for such maladies as depression, obesity and attention deficit disorder. Environment-based education is thought to stimulate creativity, improve test scores and develop problem solving skills.

How did we get so disconnected from nature? Blame it on the media, which overwhelms us with horror stories on the nightly news. Louv talks about the mythical "stranger danger" missing children issue, pointing out that about 200 incidents a year happen, about the same as before the whole media frenzy on missing children began.

Children are being scared away from playing in the woods, walking to school or biking alone in their neighborhood. Terrified parents are just trying to protect their children, but in the process, nature deprivation is wreaking havoc on physical and psychological wellbeing.

"I like to play indoors better 'cause that's where all the electrical outlets are," reports a fourth-grader.

For 10 years, Louv traveled across the country interviewing children and parents in urban and rural neighborhoods about their experiences in nature.

Children study the Amazon rain forest in school, but don't know names of plants in their own backyards. Nature has become an abstract subject instead of a multisensory experience.

Gathering thoughts from parents, teachers, researchers, environmentalists and other concerned parties, Louv argues for a future in which parents help their kids experience the natural world more deeply -- and find the joy of family connectedness in the process.

In "Last Child in the Woods," Louv talks with parents, children, teachers, scientists, religious leaders, child-development researchers and environmentalists who recognize the threat and offer solutions. Louv shows us an alternative future, one in which parents help their kids experience the natural world more deeply -- and strengthen family ties during the process.

Richard Louv has been a columnist and member of the advisory board for Parents magazine and has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Christian Science Monitor. He is an adviser to the Ford Foundation's Leadership for a Changing World award program and the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. He founded Connect for Kids, the largest child advocacy Web site. He writes a column for the San Diego Union-Tribune and is the author of six other books about family, nature and community.