Health

MINNEAPOLIS (CBS) ― We've depended on it since the beginning of human history, but have taken it for granted since. So we find ourselves at a point in our culture when we have to study the very question: What is nature?

"I think nature is lots of plants and then just a bunch of fresh air," said one student from Southview Elementary School in Apple Valley.

"It's a place where you play," said another.

"Nature's like practically our whole home," said another student.

"How is it that children intuit it so easily?" asked CBS station WCCO-TV anchor Don Shelby.

"Because it's their genetic structure," explained Robin Moore, a landscape architect and expert in designing play and educational environments.

He recently spoke at a conference in Minnesota to study and discuss the growing problem experts see across the country. The problem is documented in a bestselling book by Richard Louv: "Last Child in the Woods -- Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder."

"It's not a clinical diagnosis, there's no research behind that category," said Dr. Marti Erickson, a Minnesota psychologist. "But I do think we're beginning to accumulate enough evidence that children really do suffer when they're not connected to nature."

She is encouraging more research on the disorder.

"We're seeing evidence that this affects children's physical health," Erickson said. "That it effects their mental health and also effects whether they become good stewards of the environment down the road."

Erickson and others point to an epidemic of childhood obesity, early diabetes, asthma and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder to name a few. The increase has occurred mostly in the past decade as parents have perceived a danger in the outdoors.

However, school playgrounds are safe -- they're built to be safe. But more and more schools don't even have recess and in many schools physical education is not even required. So the playgrounds might be safe, but unless you like plastic and asphalt, it's unnatural.

"Childhood's different," said Cheryl Charles, President of Children and Nature Network. "Children are not going home after school and playing outside in what some people call free range play."

She's concerned by the amount of time children now spend in front of computers and TVs under "virtual house arrest."

"Are we worried that we're losing to the artificial what is real?" asked Shelby.

"There's certainly a concern for me. I would say I'm not against technology and we don't need to be," said Charles. "But things are out of balance."

Current research found children use electronics an average of 45 to 60 hours a week.

In his book, Louv tells the story of a boy who said he'd prefer to play inside because "that's where the electrical outlets are."

To get a real taste for nature the current thinking is that there be: "no child left inside." And it's especially true "under the oak" at the University of Minnesota's Landscape Arboretum.

"Tell me about what we really know about the effect of nature on our well being?" asked Shelby.

"We do know that when children have the opportunity to play outside, freely making decisions," said Charles. "They tend to be more creative, they're better problem solvers, they're more cooperative. We can see test scores in school increasing in science and all the major subject and skill areas."

Nature provides an environment to engage our minds differently. To navigate a fallen branch and learn self-confidence -- even survival.

Robin Moore said his work creating natural play areas can be more than healing.

"You know what? Your child has ADHD. This could be part of their cure regime," said Moore. "The way children are growing up now with too much stress, too much control in their lives. This will be, as I say, kind-of preventive measure."

Because play is in a child's nature -- perhaps nature is where a child is meant to play.


 

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