Kids on the coast

by Sarah Hindle

Research has linked a rise in obesity, depression and even eyesight problems with the trend towards the indoors, and a decline in accessing green spaces. Why have we retreated inside, and can we break free from our cloistered indoor environments?

Significant changes in childhood have occurred over the past several decades, relating to the level of interaction children have with the outdoor environment in their everyday lives. Stressed, overweight and unfit children with poor eyesight, low resilience, and an inability to empathise with nature have developed what some researchers are now calling the ‘nature deficit disorder’.

What is Nature Deficit Disorder?

Nature deficit disorder (NDD) describes the cumulative effect of withdrawing nature from children’s experiences. The disorder is systemic at a social and cultural level, but children are uniquely victimised by it.

Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder coined the term to ring alarm bells about the harm caused when a child experiences disconnection with the natural world, not as a serious clinical diagnosis. He says that a combination of over reporting in the media, and paranoid parents have literally scared children out of the natural world*, and into virtual representations of it instead. As a result, children are spending less time outside:

“Our kids are actually doing what we tell them to do when they sit in front of the TV all day or in front of that computer game all day...society is telling kids unconsciously that nature’s in the past”.

In his book, Louv examines a growing body of scientific research suggesting that children who are given early and ongoing positive exposure to nature thrive in intellectual and physical ways their ‘shut in’ peers do not. Stress is reduced, concentration sharpened, and creative problem solving is encouraged. He concludes that disconnection with the natural world has hit an all-time peak, based on his observation that the very presence of such a disorder evidences two generations of alienation from nature.

Furthermore, lack of nature doesn’t seem to be unique to cities and suburbs - kids in rural areas are having the same ‘screen time’ and are going on longer car rides.

You might have concluded your kids are lacking in motivation or energy - but perhaps what they really need is less motivational speeches from you, and more of a ‘sweep them outside with a big broom’ style. Your backyard, overrun with all the wonder of bugs and weeds could be exactly the therapy they are missing!

Our Indoor Lifestyle

Whilst children who were raised in the ‘70s and ‘80s were commonly told “go outside and play until dinner time”, the ‘sweeping plains’ and ‘far horizons’ of our sunburnt country have become little more to us than a nostalgic piece of Australiana.

Karen Malone, Associate Professor of Social Sciences at the University of Wollongong in NSW cites technophilia, shrinking backyards, safety regulations at school and daycare centres, and parental over-scheduling in childhood as significant contributing factors to the generational nature gap, but particularly blames road safety and parental worries.

In a study she conducted in the western suburbs of Melbourne, of three hundred children aged four to eight ears, she found two-thirds said their parents didn’t allow them to play outside their front gate*.

According to Louv: “Biologically we are still hunters and gatherers and we need, at some level we don’t fully understand, direct involvement with nature. We need to see natural shapes on the horizon. And when we don’t get that, we don’t do so well.”

While it is hard to prove that children are spending more of their time indoors, the Australian Institute of Family Studies has shown in recent years that children aged six to nine spend under two hours a day outdoors on the weekend, and four and five year olds just 2.3 hours outside on weekends.

Other indicators of the deficit include:

Over scheduling: children today are likely to remember their childhood as a view from the back seat of the car, being driven from one scheduled activity to the next.

Diminishing discretionary time at home: numerous studies around the world show changes in childhood which contribute to the effects of the nature deficit, such as the growing demands on children’s time, resulting in less free and unstructured playtime.

The promotion of ‘safe’ sports and scheduled activities over imaginative play.

A ‘plugged-in’ culture: an increase in media time, and high levels of screen time in preschoolers.

A change in environment: the majority of children are urban, raised indoors, and in increasingly smaller spaces.

The restricted use of private and public land for children’s free-play.

An increase of myopia (short-sightedness) in children due to concentrated
near work.

Of major concern to researchers and educators is the loss of connection children have with nature and biodiversity, many of them unable to name common plant species and garden variety insects. If today’s children are growing up without nature experiences, they risk never being bonded to nature, and may care less about environmental hurdles of the future, although the more recent trend toward organic gardening in urban areas moderates that gap somewhat.

Factors such as car ownership, reduced public transport services and the poor quality of many outdoor play environments challenge the health of the bigger picture. Complex issues such as the growing middle-class tendency to heavily schedule children’s lives into a kind of ‘turbo-childhood’ are all challenges that need to be faced by parents, and to a greater extent, society at large.

With childhood obesity levels in at one-quarter of the population in Australia (up from 21 per cent in 2005), the pressure to find effective responses is mounting.

Green Essentials

Whilst many parents are fretting over whether their children are eating enough green vegetables, the amount of green exercise may be at least as important!

Research has shown that time spent outdoors can:

• reduce stress

• boost the immune system

• enhance productivity

• promote healing

• reduce anxiety and depression

• cut crime rates

• improve cognitive functions

• reduce symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

• increase competency levels

• discourage anti-social behaviour

Reconnecting our kids with the outdoors can even improve communication in the playground, help them show greater responsibility for others, increase their curiosity about living things, and enhance their story-telling creativity.

The concept of a child-nature reunion has struck a chord with many, and since 2005, when Last Child in the Woods hit the shelves, a movement was born. Louv claims that it is because the concept rings true for parents and grandparents who are reminded of their own treasured experiences in nature as children. Camping holidays, building a tree-house, or catching tadpoles; all prized and cherished experiences unique to the wonder that goes with childhood.

Richard Louv says “there’s a lot of nature in most people’s back yards. Leave part of the yard rough. Don’t manicure everything. Small children in particular love to turn over rocks and find bugs...give them some space to do that. Take your child fishing. Take your child on hikes.” When playing freely outdoors, children have access to many loose materials, such as branches, leaves and stones. The power of the imagination is then given free reign to transfer a stick into anything, way beyond the scope of the average plastic super-market toy.

So next time you send the kids out the back door and into the garden with a desperate “Go OUTSIDE and play!” you can feel very assured it could be the very thing they (and you) need. Richard Louv would approve.

*See the feature article ‘Striking a balance’ for more on this topic.

Preventing Nature Deficit Disorder in your Kids

1. Be a role model: Demonstrate your curiosity about nature and share it with your children. Do this in everyday ways, such as noticing a rainbow, running out in the rain, reading National Geographic, recycling, not littering.

2. Plan a monthly surprise outdoor adventure: Go to a river, beach, national park or city park. (Find a QLD park or forest www.derm.qld.gov.au/parks/index.php )

3. Limit TV and computer/video games to 1-2 hours a day.

4. Take a daily or weekly walk together as a family after dinner:
   Stroll around your neighbourhood with your kids, pointing out flowers or birds, or just chatting about the day’s events.

5. Go Camping! Camping in national parks is a great cost effective family holiday that can be fun and educational. Enjoy your local parks, or take a road trip to discover other national treasures.

6. Plant a garden. Follow the inspiration of Stephanie Alexander
   (www.kitchengardenfoundation.org.au) and Jamie Oliver, and grow vegies or herbs in your backyard, or take part in a community garden. Food gardens also teach children how to be smart about nature, nutrition, and to make better food choices.

7. Compost, keep a worm farm (www.wormsdownunder.com.au/), or backyard chickens (ecocity.net.au). Involve your children and explain why you are doing it - the sight of wriggly worms or freshly laid eggs is enough to rouse even the most dedicated couch potato!

8. Buy a field guide. Field guides make a walk in the park an educational experience, helping the whole family to name and identify what you find outside.

9. Link up with one of your great local or national organisations.
   National Geographic Kids www.kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids
   Earthwatch Kids www.earthwatchkids.net
   Millennium Kids www.millenniumkids.com.au
   Fit Kids Australia www.fitkidsaustralia.com
   Australian Conservation Foundation www.acfonline.org.au
   
   

Further reading:

Last Child in the Woods. By Richard Louv. RRP: $24.95

This book shows how our children have become increasingly alienated and distanced from nature, why
this matters and how we can make a difference.