Kids (Dis)Connecting with Nature

A blog post written for the Alberta Camping Association.

Kids (Dis)Connecting with Nature

Kids who spend time in nature have improved creativity, problem solving skills and are physically healthier too! Everyone knows that spending time in the fresh air is good for your, yet research by the David Suzuki Foundation shows that 70% of Canadian kids spend an hour or less outside each day. Why is that?

Last week, David Suzuki was interviewed on Q with Jian Ghomeshi on CBC Radio One. He explained that it’s a combination of overprotective parents and new technologies that are keeping kids indoors and in many cases replacing ‘green time with screen time’. He also spoke about the 30×30 Nature Challenge, running throughout May. This challenge will hopefully inspire parents and their kids to spend at least 30 minutes in nature every day for 30 days.

In this interview Suzuki used the term ‘helicopter parents’, a term we’ve heard many times, to describe the type of overprotective parenting that prevents children from exploring the great outdoors, raising a generation that’s disconnected from nature.

“There are lots of stats out there but the ones I have say that kids spend an average of six minutes a day outside playing and six hours or more a day in front of some kind of electronic gadget,” Suzuki told the CBC. “This is a complete reversal from what we’ve been for 99% of our existence.”

In a world that is exploding with urban development and new technology we have not paid attention to the need for humans, especially children to be out in nature. Nature is everywhere, even in urban centres. It is in our backyards, our lawns, at the park and in the trees on the boulevard. Suzuki expressed the need to be around more greenery and other species. Eating lunch under a tree, having lots of plants in your house, or having animals as pets can help you and your children better connect with the natural world.

Technology and urban development are not the only factors deterring kids from connecting with nature. Over protective parents, even with the best intentions, are hovering so close to their children they are not allowing them to freely discover the natural world on their own, or even at all.

“We haven’t paid attention to the place we live and make it child friendly,” shared Suzuki. He described a childhood where 6 people lived in a small house and it was expected that children played outside for the majority of the time. Rain or shine, kids would be out in the neighborhood playing and discovering nature.

“Kids will play in a puddle for literally hours; making little dams and diverting the water, jumping in it, making mud pies…we don’t allow ourselves that,” said Suzuki. It’s sad to think that instead of losing themselves in a world of imagination and discovery, kids are glued to video games and smart phones.

If kids don’t get the chance to experience nature when they’re young there could be serious consequences. Time spent in nature is essential for healthy psychological and physical development in children. According to an interview on the David Suzuki Foundation’s blog with Dr. Melissa Lem, Family Physician, daily doses of time spent outside can help prevent and treat even medical conditions like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, child weight gain or obesity. It can lower childhood incidences of traditionally adult diseases like diabetes and cholesterol issues. The article also stated that ailments like asthma, depression and slower motor and social skills can be linked to reduced exposure to nature.

It’s obvious that playing outside is usually active play and has many benefits to a child’s physical health, but there are also many mental health benefits.

Dr. Lem stated that “ADHD symptoms improve significantly after children spend time in nature, with increased benefits seen in more green locations. Girls with greener views from their home windows score higher on measures of self-discipline. Also, depression and anxiety disorders are less prevalent in youth who have greater amounts of nature in their living environments.”

What is connecting with nature? Nature is everywhere. In fact, we are nature! The main thing is just to get outside. In the 30×30 Challenge the David Suzuki encourages people to leave their cocoon of human technology. That means to leave your phone and mp3 players at home and open your senses to the sights, sounds and smells that nature has to offer.

For more information on how you can connect with nature as a family visit www.davidsuzuki.org/what-you-can-do/connecting-youth-with-nature

Sources:  http://www.cbc.ca/q/blog/2013/05/08/david-suzuki-on-why-kids-are-disconnected-from-nature/,  http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/docs-talk/2012/03/replacing-screen-time-with-green-time-is-good-for-kids/