Nature Nurtures
BY ERIN PAGE PHOTOS BY STACY NOAKES
Spending time outdoors improves family mental health The term “nature-deficit disorder” was coined by author and journalist Richard Louv in his 2005 New York Times bestseller Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder to describe the detrimental effects on humans as we spend less time outdoors. Nature-deficit disorder is not a medical diagnosis, but what was at first a tongue-in-cheek phrase has given parents, caregivers and researchers a way to talk about the growing disconnection between kids and nature over the last several decades.
“There are now well over 1,000 studies that point in the same direction — nature is fundamental to our humanity and to the development of children and adults over time,” said Louv.
Louv is the author of 10 books and has helped launch an international movement to connect children, their families and communities to nature. He co-founded the Children & Nature Network, which supports and mobilizes leaders, educators, activists, parents and others working to turn the trend of an indoor childhood back to the outdoors and to increase safe, equitable access to the natural world for all.
In his newest book, Our Wild Calling: How Connecting with Animals Can Transform Our Lives — and Save Theirs, Louv explores the theory that society is currently plagued by a double pandemic. In addition to COVID, a second pandemic of human loneliness is on the rise. Recent science has associated human isolation with many of the same diseases caused by smoking and obesity. One of the biggest deterrents to children spending time in nature is fear, particularly fear of strangers.
As Louv was initially researching the benefits of nature to human development and health (and deficiencies without it) in preparation for Last Child in the Woods, he found only about 60 academic studies on the issue. Since the book’s release, the research has become a growth industry.
14 METROFAMILYMAGAZINE.COM / MAY-JUNE 2022
This growing body of scientific research indicates that time spent in nature positively impacts psychological health, physical health and the ability to learn. “One series of studies showed that Attention-Deficit Disorder symptoms go down significantly in kids as young as 5, just through a walk through trees in an urban park,” said Louv. “Cognitive functioning improves; the immune system is strengthened.” Conversely, Louv says some studies on the deficits have been disturbing, showing that in neighborhoods where nature isn’t accessible to kids, the death of infants because of low birth weight is much higher, even when factoring out other causes. “Literally this is a life and death situation,” said Louv.
“As a species, we are desperate not to feel alone in the universe,” said Louv. “The more science finds out about how animals and trees and other forms of life communicate within their own species and across species, the more we recognize that there is a great conversation going on around us all the time. When we participate in that conversation, we feel less lonely. This has certainly been true during the pandemic.”
