Nature-deficit disorder

It is sad to hear about the trend that children are spending less time connecting with nature. This article points out some negative effects this can have on their social, psychological, and spiritual development. Let's continue to protect and promote our natural places and car-free public spaces, for they are indeed treasures.

-Shawn

Nature-Deficit Disorder and Social Integration in Children
By Mario J. Alves
In an excellent interview the author Richard Louv points out that in the developed world children live in a bubble that is slowly disconnecting them from nature. In his recent book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, he coined the term "Nature-Deficit Disorder."

Several research studies around the world have shown that the lack of meaningful connection with natural areas leaves children spiritually and emotionally impoverished and ill-equipped to face their adult lives. In a study financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation (Schweizerischen Nationalfonds) and by the city of Zürich, Marco Hüttenmoser studied families using both qualitative and quantitative methods. One of the results: children who can not go outside to play without accompaniment already show at the age of five major deficits with regard to their motor and social skills. This is mostly due to the dangers of car-traffic and lack of suitable play environments near their home.

In a further study Hüttenmoser compared drawings made by children who walked to school with drawings from children who were driven to school by car. When asked to draw their journey to school, children showed very different patterns according to their method of transport.

Pedestrian childhood : Annina, 7 years

Children who walk to school draw a rich path with many details of nature, animals, and other people. Children who are driven to school draw the route, consisting of, at best, a road, a few cars, the school house, and home.

Auto-centric childhood: Roberto, 6 years

Cars not only have a direct impact on children - putting them in danger - but also an indirect impact - changing the streets where they play and depriving them of nature and social interaction. In a more recent project entitled "The contribution of good public spaces to social integration in urban neighbourhoods" Daniel Sauter and Marco Hüttenmoser studied - once again under the auspices of the Swiss National Science Foundation's "social inclusion and social exclusion" program - the effects of traffic on the social relations of residents living on streets with different traffic volumes and speeds in the city of Basel.

The results substantially confirmed the findings of the famous study by Appleyard and Lintel more then 30 years ago: residents who live on traffic-calmed streets have considerably more contacts and more intense social relationships with their neighbors. Moreover, those who live on streets with fewer and slower cars feel safer and use public space more often - only 24% of residents living in 50 km/hr streets claimed to linger occasionally in the street, 37% in 30 km/hr streets reported doing so, and 51% in strolling zones (shared-space with priority to pedestrians and a maximum speed of 20 km/hr). Children who are allowed to be outdoors on their own stay there considerably longer than other children.

In summary: traffic and the quality of the street environment have a substantial influence on the social life of neighborhoods, the use of public space and the personal feeling of being socially integrated. The results of the study show a fascinating spectrum of street life and interactions in the different settings and provide additional arguments for creating walking-friendly, livable street environments.

About the book....

"I like to play indoors better — cause that's where all the electrical outlets are," reports a fourth grader. But it's not only computers, television, and video games that are keeping kids inside. It's also their parents' fears of traffic, strangers, Lyme disease, and West Nile virus; their schools' emphasis on more and more homework; their structured schedules; and their lack of access to natural areas. Local governments, neighborhood associations, and even organizations devoted to the outdoors are placing legal and regulatory constraints on many wild spaces, sometimes making natural play a crime.

As children's connections to nature diminish and the social, psychological, and spiritual implications become apparent, new research shows that nature can offer powerful therapy for such maladies as depression, obesity, and attention-deficit disorder. Environment-based education dramatically improves standardized test scores and grade-point averages and develops skills in problem solving, critical thinking, and decision making. Anecdotal evidence strongly suggests that childhood experiences in nature stimulate creativity.

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 find the joy of family connectedness in the process.