Feature
Marti Erickson, who directs the Harris programs in the University's Center for Early Education and Development, advocates bringing children into contact with nature on a regular basis.
Putting back the wild in the child
A movement to expose more children to nature gains steam
By Deane Morrison
April 4, 2008
As cities grow and green spaces shrink, children are losing
their connection to woods, meadows, and nature in general. The
trend has alarmed many child development researchers, especially
since the 2005 publication of Richard Louv's Last Child in the
Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature Deficit Disorder. The
book prompted Mary Vidas, public policy program manager at the U's
Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, to organize "Nature, Children and
Families: A Necessary Connection," a conference on the issue. Held
today (Friday, April 4, 2008) and sponsored by the Arboretum and
the Minnesota Council on Family Relations, it laid out the case for
bringing nature and children back together. "It just sneaked up on
us. Over the last 20 to 30 years, kids stopped going outside," says
conference speaker Marti Erickson, co-chair of the U's Initiative
on Children, Youth, and Families. Her own profession hasn't devoted
enough research to the problem, adds Erickson, who has spent her
career studying parent-child attachment. But the studies that have
been done point to benefits from natural surroundings, or even
views of trees or other greenery, in calming children and
refreshing them mentally. For example, "A study in Canada had
teachers rate the play of children in natural green outdoor play
areas versus other kinds of play areas [such as barren
courtyards]," says Erickson. "Those in the natural areas were rated
as more cooperative and engaging in more problem-solving and
creative play, but we need more rigorous studies to infer
causality."
"Data on the risk of stranger abduction shows
that it's no higher, and maybe lower, than in the 1970s, when kids
were outside a lot. [This fear] is driven to a large extent by the
media."
Another "soft" but provocative study suggested that children who
have a caring adult introduce them to nature are more likely to
become good stewards of nature later, she says. At the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, conference keynoter Andrea Faber
Taylor and her colleagues are out to systematically test the
benefits of green space on children's day-to-day functioning. In a
study of public housing residents, they compared children ages 7-12
where everything was the same except for whether or not the
families' units had views of trees or other greenery.
Hear, hear
Listen to a University of Minnesota
Moment with Marti Erickson on the benefits to families of a
"green hour."
"Girls with the greener view scored higher on measures of
concentration, impulse control, and delay of gratification.
Collectively, these are measures of the capacity for
self-discipline," says Taylor, a child environment and behavior
researcher. No such relationship was observed for boys, however;
possibly, she says, because they spent more time playing outside
and so were less influenced by the view from their windows.
Children with ADHD also seem to benefit, if only temporarily, from
the calming effects of time outside, says Taylor. Often, such
children have lots of homework because they can't get any done at
school. But adding green space to the mix of coping strategies
would lessen the burden on parents trying to get the kids to hit
the books. "If the parents could just say, 'OK, you're home. We're
going to the park for 30 minutes,' the child will be better able to
tackle homework," she explains. Reasons for kids' weakening
connection to nature aren't hard to find. For one thing, Erickson
faults a general loss of recess and physical education time in the
schools. "With the focus on testing, what many of us see as a
narrow approach to learning [has taken hold]," she says.
"Experiential learning from getting outside and experiencing
science up close and personal is declining." Interviews with
parents have uncovered two other reasons. Fear, especially of
stranger abductions, is number one. But Erickson urges parents to
resist. "Data on the risk of stranger abduction shows that it's no
higher, and maybe lower, than in the 1970s, when kids were outside
a lot," she says. "[This fear] is driven to a large extent by the
media. "Also, I think sometimes we magnify one risk and overlook
another one. Type II diabetes, for example, is linked to lifestyle.
I think we have to take a balanced look at risks and benefits and
override our fears so we don't create an even greater risk for our
children." Many parents also harbor a fear of nature itself, says
Erickson, and today's young parents who were nature-deprived as
children may be most prone to it. A second big factor parents have
noticed is the seductive power of technology. Studies imply that
kids can spend more than 40 hours a week in front of some sort of
screen, says Erickson; and not only that, but new technologies
often visit nature along with the children. "People [who work] in
parks and nature centers are very uncomfortable when kids come in
with instant messaging, iPods, headphones, and so on and look for
interactive technology [in nature centers]," she says. Parents and
teachers can do a lot to correct the problem, however. Erickson
cites school-sponsored, kid-tended vegetable gardens as one measure
and praises Dodge Nature Preschool in West St. Paul as "a beautiful
example of getting children hooked on nature early." She also
stresses that parents need not worry that any of this will add more
bricks to their load. "Greening time" is a great de-stressor for
people of all ages, she notes. Take the day last December when she
was overloaded with work but still took her young granddaughter out
for a romp in the new-fallen snow. It gave Erickson such a surge of
energy that she got far more work done that night than she had
expected. "For a little investment, you can get a lot of return,"
she observes.