Nature: The Best Playground

By Emily Shovlin

Reminiscing on childhood, many people reflect on the time they spent outdoors: from bike rides with friends and soccer in the backyard to secret conversations in the tree house and sleepovers in a tent pitched out back. For decades, days spent outside shaped young children, providing an outlet for energy and stress relief, and allowing them to improve their imagination and social skills. Today, children predominantly play indoors, using technology that did not exist twenty years ago. Since the technology boom in the mid-1990s, time spent outdoors has decreased significantly while the number of cases of anxiety, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and obesity amongst children has increased. Although not recognized by medical journals, many people have referred to this phenomenon as “nature-deficit disorder.”

This term first showed up in Richard Louv’s bestselling book, ​Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder​. Louv describes nature-deficit disorder as “[T]he human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses. The disorder can be detected in individuals, families, and communities. Nature deficit can even change human behavior in cities, which could ultimately affect their design, since long-standing studies show a relationship between the absence, or inaccessibility, of parks and open space with high crime rates, depression, and other urban maladies.” Parents, researchers, and psychologists have shown a lot of respect for Louv and his term, and have done extensive research on technology’s negative impacts on children since the book’s publication in 2005.

The decline is quite clear: when taking a walk outside, it’s now rare to bump into many people. When you do, it’s commonly adults, whether they’re walking their dogs or taking a stroll with their spouse. You no longer see children playing rounds of Capture the Flag at the local field, biking around with friends, or jumping through sprinklers in their front yard. The few times you do see children outside, their heads are bowed over their phones, texting to meet up with other friends, playing Pokémon Go, or snapping pictures to post on Instagram. Louv and other researchers of nature-deficit disorder put a lot of emphasis on the benefits of spending time in nature, and children of this generation are missing out on these advantages.

In writing his book, Louv spoke with multiple parents who told stories of their ADHD children having significant positive changes in their ability to focus. Some of the children play seasonal sports, but it was the connection to nature that made the difference – one family is even considering moving to the mountains! Studies have found that spending time in nature can bring children and adults peace and concentration, and even enhance a child’s cognitive, social, and physical characteristics. A study conducted by Aric Sigman found that children who spend time in nature score higher on tests, that outdoor time improves their cognition by improving their awareness and reasoning skills, and that gardening increases a child’s self-esteem.

If the visible benefits of nature for children isn’t enough to convince parents, nostalgia for yesteryear should do it. The memories and experiences of a childhood spent outdoors are irreplaceable. Sure, a kid may remember reaching the highest level of a game or completing a difficult quest; but the fond recollections that our planet can provide – scraped knees from climbing trees, splashing through a chilled river on a muggy day, and scrambling up the tallest rock – will be embedded in their minds as the bliss of childhood. Nature is a playground, and it’s demanding to be played on.