Posts tagged ‘Nature Deficit Disorder’
Owls and the Homeless: When nature and reality meet
Look, there’s an owl nest.
Hey, check out the trout lilies.
And just ahead, there’s a homeless man sleeping.
So it goes at Turville Point Conservancy on a Saturday morning hike.
Maple Syrup Time: But will kids eat it?
Sap drips from a tree. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.
March is maple syrup month.
It’s a magical time of year. Sap only runs when night temps fall below freezing and days are in the 40s. Once it gets too warm – usually by mid April – the season is over.
This weekend I’m heading up to MacKenzie Environmental Education Center in Poynette with a group of 35 kids and parents for their annual Maple Syrup Festival. We’ll eat a mess of pancakes with real maple syrup and take in the maple syrup making exhibits.
The kids will love the real syrup, right?
Sounds crazy, but some years ago, I treated some kids to real maple syrup and they didn’t like it. This blew my mind. How could the kids prefer the artificial hyper-sweet syrup to the lighter, earthy sweetness of the real deal? Easy. Kids are just used to the fake stuff. It’s sweeter and gooier. I grew up on Aunt Jemima and truth is most families can’t afford to buy real maple syrup anyway. Perhaps Nature Deficit Disorder applies to food too…call it Nature Palette Disorder.
I will find out on Saturday what a new batch of kids think.
What real foods do your kids reject in favor of the processed variety. Think Velveeta and Oscar Meyer wieners.
Diane Schwartz is busy getting ready for this trip and enjoying the perfect Maple Syrup making weather. Subscribe to this blog now and receive a free 11-page Bubble Activity Guide.
Nature as Tonic for ADHD: Louv Part 3
This is the third installment of reflections from the book: Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv.
It makes intuitive sense that kids diagnosed with ADHD would benefit from outdoor activities. I’m glad that Louv’s book is full of research to back this up.
In a study done at the University of Illinois (p.104), researchers showed that outdoor play in “green” settings resulted in fewer symptoms. By comparison, indoor activities such as watching TV, or outdoor activities on paved, non-green areas, increased symptoms. Even looking out the window at something green, can improve attention-deficit symptoms.
This is why I invite kids with the most energy to come on my outings. Tomorrow, we’re taking a trip to Picnic Point for a cook out. Nearly half of the kids on the trip are high needs kids, some with the label of ADHD. While I believe that all kids need nature to thrive, grow and develop their senses, these kids benefit most from simple green activities.
For example, I work with a first grader who is so high energy that sometimes he literally can’t stop moving. He acts out at times and inadvertently hits others when he loses control of his body. However, when he’s on a hike, these behaviors are non-existent. He’s happy and engaged. His senses are fully piqued.
If you know of a child that can benefit from some nature tonic, be sure to get them into an outdoor program. Or, get them out in the backyard, to explore insects, worms, buds, anything to stimulate their senses. I’ll be looking for easy ways for you to do this and will post the best as I find them.
For now, if you subscribe to my blog, I’ll send you my Bubble Activity Guide for free. It’s full of fun, easy and inexpensive things to do with kids. And, it includes my famous bubble juice recipe.
Last child in the woods: Part 1-Nature Deficit Disorder
This is the first installment of my comments about the book: Last child in the woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv.
About 6 months into my job, a volunteer said, “So, you’ve probably read about Richard Louv, right?” I hadn’t. He told me a little about him and I Googled him that night. So this was the guy who coined the phrase “nature deficit disorder (NDD)?” Brilliant. Now that I have a year-and-a-half of experience working with kids, I’m finally ready to pick up his book and find out what he’s talking about.
Like me, Louv thinks that kids need nature to thrive. Without access to nature, kids are missing a sense of wonder about the world that they can’t get from a book or video. I only have to remember my first look at the ocean or a glacier to know this is true. To be sure, books inspired me, but the actual thing filled me with awe and wonder that never left me. Louv talks about kids that know much about the natural world because they’ve seen it on TV. These kids can talk about the rain forest and think they know the rain forest and nature. The sad part is that they don’t know that they are missing anything. Louv writes that nature has increasingly become a spectator sport, something to be consumed just like toy. That’s NDD. And that’s a shame.
While Louv is careful to say that NDD is not an illness, I think he’d like us to think of it that way. For myself, I know that if don’t get outside to enjoy nature on a regular basis, I get sick. Sick in the head. Sick of myself. Sick. Nature keeps me well and it heals me. It stands to reason that a growing child, who is deprived of nature could be considered ill. In his book he cites ample evidence to show that nature makes a difference in people’s lives.
It’s fascinating how scientists and researchers are documenting the benefits of nature. I’d love to hear a doctor say, “Take a walk in the woods and call me in the morning,” to treat someone for depression. Or, “Lay on your back and watch clouds,” to treat an overworked professional. We all intuitively know nature works and now there is growing evidence, all documented in Louv’s book, that proves it. Kids who don’t have nature as a tool for living are at risk. At risk for depression and for numerous physical and emotional ailments.
What I do in my work is provide programs to help get kids outside so that they develop lifelong habits. That way, they’ll have nature to fall back on when the going gets tough. They’ll also just have fun. Hopefully they are getting a sense of wonder. It’s unfortunate that kids don’t have the unstructured access to nature that they used to, but we can’t go back. My programs are structured. They have to be. However, I’ll write about the “Criminalization of Natural Play” in my next post. There’s a lot more to read and comment about….
Last child in the woods: Reading Louv’s book
I have finally started to read Richard Louv’s seminal book: Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder (2005). I feel like I have enough experience now to place his book in context. This is an important book and I’m looking forward to reading it and posting my thoughts here.
