'Is our kids' suffering from Nature Deficit Disorder?

[Earth_First]

Since its publication in 2005, Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, has gone through 10 printings in cloth and paper, and generated more than 600 requests for author speeches, with five appearance requests continuing to hit the in-box each week. The book also has spawned a grassroots movement among the most divergent of people: conservatives, liberals, developers, environmentalists, educators, ministers, architects, and outdoor clothing and equipment manufacturers.

The book’s premise is simple, backed by interviews and rigorous research: Nearly 8 million children in the United States suffer from mental disorders. Obesity rates in children are soaring; children are being diagnosed with depression, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) at alarming rates, accompanied by prescriptions to Ritalin and other stimulants.

At the same time, children are increasingly disconnected from the natural world. While children of decades past spent summers building tree houses and forts, and winters sledding and building igloos, children today are stressed, overscheduled, and wired to computers and televisions. And, if the current generation of young parents missed out on personal experiences with nature, who will teach their children? How will the children of the new millennium learn to catch lightning bugs, feel the satisfying crunch of shell roads under their sneakers, or simply sit quietly in a forest to smell the rich soil of autumn, feel the crisp air of a coming winter and watch as sun dapples the trees?

Louv is careful to point out that “nature-deficit disorder” isn’t a clinically recognized term; he uses it with a sense of irony in a society that embraces medicalized phrases. Still, it has been enthusiastically embraced as a part of the modern lexicon.

http://www.grit.com/Health/Taking-Children-Outdoors.aspx

[Brickbat]

1. This is an excellent and important book and I encourage every parent to read it.

This write up makes it sound a lot more woo than it really is.

[midnight]

2. This is a good jumping off point....

[FirstLight]

3. One of the main reasons i moved from the city

was to raise my kids in a rural area where they would have the ability to ride bikes, hike, climb trees, etc. just like i had growing up.

Granted, it is still a challenge to get them to turn off the tv and get outside, but it happens more often than not. Their school is also geared toward the environment, they have a pretty good size creek that runs by the school, they test the water, raise trout to set free in the spring, and take regular walks to the creek to look at the way the trees and things change through the year.

It's so sad that most people live in a place where being outdoors is not conducive to experiencing nature. We joke about tourists up here saying "look honey a TREE, they don't have those where we're from" but the reality of that statement is pretty awful....

[pipi_k]

6. Look honey, a tree...

That reminded me of song from the 70s

"Big Yellow Taxi"

(partial lyrics)

They paved paradise and put up a parkin' lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swingin' hot spot
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got till it's gone
They paved paradise and put up a parkin' lot

They took all the trees, and put em in a tree museum
And they charged the people a dollar and a half to see them
No, no, no, don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone
They paved paradise, and put up a parkin' lot

Hey farmer, farmer, put away your DDT
I don't care about spots on my apples,
Leave me the birds and the bees - please
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got till it's gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
Hey now, they've paved paradise to put up a parking lot
Why not?

[pipi_k]

4. A city child who found her place...

When I was a little girl I lived in the city. I had one great-aunt who lived in a rural area....she then moved to another more rural area not far from where I live now.

A few times a year my parents would take us out to my great-aunt's house where our three girl cousins would take us out walking in the woods, let us ride their horses, show us how to pick berries, etc.

I loved it.

I knew that when I grew up I would want to return to the woods. When I grew up I took vacations twice a year down at the shoreline in CT. Those two weeks per year were heaven. I hated...absolutely hated! coming back home. I mean, it actually HURT to come back to the noise and chaos of the city.

So here I am now, in the middle of the woods surrounded by trees and animals...the smell of the soil...peepers in the spring...crickets in the summer...thousands of stars in a very dark night sky...during full moons the entire landscape is bathed in beautiful silvery light, not harsh artificial light.

When the grandkids visit the first thing they want to do is walk out to the pond (supervised) and see all the frogs and fish.

I wish all kids could have this experience...

:loveya:

[FirstLight]

10. very similar...

I grew up in the bay area, and my dad found some property in the wine country and bought it...it was a weekend place where we would go while dad worked on trying to fix up the place ... it was 40 acres in the redwoods, and i still remember that as the happiest time of my youth. I would pack a lunch and take off into the woods, sit in the trees and sing for hours...tyring to be snow white and call the animals to me, but i most likely scared them off. I learned if i just sat there i would see deer, hawks, rabbits, etc...

Now i love living in a place where the only thing you have to worry about on the trails is whether you meet a bear or Mtn lion...not a homeless person or a kidnapper...

though the mtn lion is definitely more dangerous!

[pipi_k]

13. Lions and tigers and bears...

We have black bears here, and there's been some dissent over the years as to whether the cougar has returned. They've been spotted but nobody has been able to get actual proof.

Mr P even saw one once, running across a main road in between here and a large city. It's hard to mistake the characteristic run and body size (including the tail) for anything else.

Funny...my kids live in the city...my daughter has been worried for years about me being eaten by a bear. I tell her I'm probably safer here than she is in the city...drive-by shootings, kidnappings, rapists. Not that it can't happen here, but people who like to do those things don't generally want to travel far to do them.

[canetoad]

5. It's not just kids

That have a lack of exposure to the timeless, relaxing qualities of nature. Many adults should abandon the computer, the job, the ratrace (even temporarily) and spend more time sitting on a riverbank.

[pipi_k]

12. Hard to believe...

but I know, and have known in the past, people who absolutely hate the quiet and solitude of the country.

I guess it takes all kinds, but honestly, I can't even imagine someone actually loving the craziness of modern life...

Makes me sad, I guess...

[cali]

7. depends where you live. My kid is nature boy

grew up in the Northeast Kingdom, rambling through the woods, chopping kindling, skiing (telmark, downhill and cross country) sailing on the lake, kayaking, canoing, hiking, climbing, gardening, etc.

[XanaDUer]

8. I still treasure my childhood memories

of the beauty of summers in the Catskills.

[RT Atlanta]

9. Sadly, probably so

I make a determined effort to play outdoors with my children for hours at a time each weekend - regardless of the weather... they need to see and appreciate each weather season for its own beauty.

Thank you for sharing this link - very thought-provoking

[CrispyQ]

11. Is this the author who put forth that because of this 'nature deficit disorder'

they noticed that many younger people are not as concerned about the environment?

I read that several years ago, but don't recall who wrote the article. It made perfect sense to me. If one doesn't have an appreciation of nature, why would one care if it's destroyed or changed beyond all recognition?