Does Your Child Have Nature Deficit Disorder?
by Marni Fogelson-Teel, 08/08/11
Remember the good old days, when your mom told you to go outside to play all day and just to be sure to come home when the streetlights came on? Yeah, me neither (nor do most of my friends). But my slightly older husband, who grew up in a small town, does, and probably most of our parents or grandparents do. Now try and think about telling your own child to spend his or her day outside playing, exploring, and soaking up nature. If it seems like a highly unlikely experience to imagine, you’re in good company. There are multitudes of reasons (crime, environmental hazards, fear of seeming like a negligent parent) why you wouldn’t allow your children to play outside all day. Yet there are some equally compelling reasons to make sure, nonetheless, that your child is spending time getting down in the dirt, and this need for kids to reconnect with the outside world keeps growing. Richard Louv made waves with his last book Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. His concept of Nature Deficit Disorder refers to some of the common issues that occur when kids don’t spend enough time in nature, including links with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, childhood obesity, higher rates of physical and emotional illness and vitamin D deficiency.
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