Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder

When I was growing up in Boise Idaho, I thought nothing of spending an afternoon away from my parents fishing ponds along the Boise River. As I graduated to fly fishing, I spent time on the river itself. Closer to home, the canal which ran below South Federal Way offered a miniature green belt where my friends and I built forts and rode bikes. Urban as Boise was, even then, this tiny greenbelt was still sufficiently wild that I would occasionally find a porcupine in our front yard. Our cats were fairly adept at finding quail (and bringing their still quivering bodies to us) and in general I found it easy to retreat to a relatively tame and yet exciting out of doors. Children today have no such privileges. Indeed, as Richard Louv points out, they are literally suffering from nature deficit disorder and its effects are far more pervasive than most of us would be willing to acknowledge. Increasing urbanization is part of the problem, but only a small part. A larger portion of the blame lies with the unintentional effects of our best intentions: legislation and regulations to protect and educate children.Louv's hypothesis, in brief, is that we have entered a third frontier. Following the argument of America's first great historian, Frederick Jackson Turner, Louv suggests that America's frontier did indeed close in the 1890s, but it was replaced almost immediately by a second great frontier: life on farms, institutions such as scouting, and outdoor activities were, he argues, commonplace until the 1980s. But, just as Turner's thesis begins with the 1890 census, Louv finds the 1990 census an equally useful demarcation point, for beginning with this census, separate farm records are no longer kept, due to the decline in the rural population. A decline (and aging of) people involved in outdoor recreation also dates from about this time. And what of the new generation of children? Louv quotes from many of them, but the most revealing is a 5th grade boy who says he prefers to play indoors, because that is where the electrical outlets are....Children simply do not spend the quality time they once did out of doors. And there are many consequences to this change. Citing several lines of research, Louv links his "nature-deficit disorder" to ADHD, depression, childhood obesity, gang problems, recovery from illness, and even underperformance in school. Taken individually, the research supporting any one of these claims seems fairly minimal: I suspect many researchers do not even recognize the problem. After all, it was years after Howard Gardner developed his multiple intelligence theory that it even occurred to him that there was a "naturalist" intelligence and many in academe are even more oblivious to considering research along these lines. However, taken as a whole Louv has presented a powerful case that the new world of gameboys, TV, cell phones, IPods and Internet has some unintended consequences that are not beneficial.Instinctively, most parents know this. Many say they try to limit TV time and encourage children to play outside, but as Louv demonstrates, we as a society don't really mean what we say and our children are very aware of that. Outside activity is becoming increasingly restricted these days, and not just by development. "Environmental Activists," whom one might think would want promote outdoor activities are busy restricting it. Flying kites on the beach, after all, might scare snowy plovers (an endangered bird that nests on California beaches). Tree houses harm trees! So does climbing them. And God forbid you should build a fort, bicycle on a single track use trail, or any of a whole host of other activities. PETA activists, always on the cutting edge of extremism, have actively campaigned against hunting and fishing, especially among the young, and yet these are precisely the sort of activities that many first experience nature with. When I grew up, hunting was so common that all boys and girls had mandatory hunter safety in 7th grade PE. Today, we read stories about Audabon in our state approved readers blissfully unaware that the great naturalist often shot and ate the birds that he painted. As Louv points out, our children are so disconnected from nature that they do not even recognize that it is the source of the food they consume.Environmental activists of course do not share all the blame. Our increasingly litigious society makes it difficult to promote recreation. School field trips, summer camps, and even playing in a "vacant" lot all involve substantial liability and the cost of liability insurance is going up. Louv notes that in California statuatory law does provide some protection for property owners who allow people access to their land for recreation. But the law is narrowly interpreted. A girl's parents sued when she fell off her bike while crossing a private bridge. Biking, the judge explained, was not recreation. {?} Damages from a single such suit can prevent further access.Schools are also to blame, though in this instance the problem lies not so much with local school boards as it does with national legislation, specifically No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Louv recognizes that schools have dramatically cut field trips, recess, and even PE, but he does not explicitly tie this to NCLB. Teachers, however, will tell you that at this point, almost all attention is focused on math and language arts and schools face outright dissolution if they fail to meet the ever increasing demands of this legislation. I personally am fortunate enough to work at a school where the principal found enough value in the "Earth Club" to fund a field trip to our local mountains. But in an age of budget cuts, many other administrators will, understandably, cut such expenditures first. Under NCLB, "enrichment" of children does not enrich a school.Ultimately then Louv suggests we face an increasely bleak future. As a society, we do not value what we cannot name and fewer and fewer children can identify even local animals and plants. But they are alienated, bored, and increasingly, heavily medicated so they can function in our urban society. To avoid the attendant ills which come with our brave new world of an electronic mall culture, we need to create areas of open space, but we also need to let go of these areas and our kids. Rather than stiffle youngsters with regulations and "protections" we need to give them the freedom many of us had as children. This means, ultimately, we must protect our children from our own best intentions.

Last Child in the Woods is a very good book about social trends over the past couple of decades- trends that are taking children away from the great outdoors and back inside where electronic games, cell phones, televisions, and similar types of entertainment consume almost all of their time and attention. The book's intent is to illustrate the negative impacts of too little time spent in nature and what parents and even localities can do to get more nature in kids' lives and make inner cities more accommodating to natural activities.I'm not much of an outdoorsman, but I agree that exposure to natural settings is a positive experience for countless reasons. When you spend your time working and living in a city, an excursion into the countryside is good because it helps relieve stress, offers some fresh air, exposes you to wildlife, etc. and I would probably partake in these activities more often if my schedule permitted. Last Child in the Woods stresses that parents need to find a way make time, for the sake of their kids and themselves. The benefits from hiking, camping, and otherwise re-connecting with the outdoors are immeasurable and they apply to adults and kids alike.Most of Last Child in the Woods is dedicated to children and what needs to be done to help reverse the trends of the past thirty years and get kids to put down their cell phones, remote controls, and joysticks in favor of some time spent exploring a park, forest, or other natural setting. The consequences of too much time indoors include some obvious and not- so- obvious outcomes. The inactivity is part of the reason that child obesity is such a serious and growing problem. Too much time inside also leads to boredom and a reduction of creative and problem- solving skills. But as this book points out, the negative results extend into areas that many would not have even considered. One example is the growing problem with ADHD. Studies have shown that ADHD diagnosis is lessened with more exposure to natural settings and this trend toward less outdoor activity could be part of the reason that ADHD is more common today than in the past.Besides the emphasis on children and improving their outdoor IQ, this book is also about change on other levels. It talks about the role of cities in making the move toward a more nature- friendly urban and suburban setting. It talks about the movements in some large cities to establish more green space; construct buildings with green rooftops; plant more trees; and increase environmental education at the elementary and high school levels. These specialty schools are a great idea for the education they provide, but as the book points out, any school can take a step in the right direction by utilizing the outdoors as part of the educational process. Any school can talk about outdoors and even hold some of the classes in an outdoor setting. It can work wonders for children and can pay handsome dividends in the future.Last Child in the Woods is a thoughtful book with much to offer. Not only does the author make many good points about nature and its importance to children, he even includes several supplemental sections that offer good recommendations and advice. There is a section with 100 actions we can take to improve the recent trends; good books for kids and families; suggestions to transform communities; etc. The author really went beyond the call of duty with these extras. The main part of the book is already very good, but now you get all of this extra guidance and assistance. Anyone who is not sure where to start can benefit tremendously from reading these extra sections.The trend away from outdoor recreation has been going on for decades and while many may not think about a subject like this, it is certainly one that deserves our time and consideration. Today's children are far less inclined to spend time outdoors than their parents and grandparents and this lack of interaction with the natural world can have dire consequences. Everyone could benefit from more time outside and while this book could have benefitted from more official studies to back its claims and findings, it is still a very good, useful, thoughtful book that everyone should take the time to read.

This highly emotive and readable perspective of an American journalist is creating a huge movement of people and organisations who have said "Enough is enough" to litigation and other constraints on unstructured outdoor free play for children of all ages. The book cites the need for action to be taken by everyone to consider the environment in which we live and how it impacts on our health. For anyone interested in children, the outdoors, green spaces, wilderness areas, green design of urban places, etc. and who wants an introduction to a rapidly expanding movement in North America, then buy this book. The chapter which discusses spirituality and the nature is sensitively written and gives multi-faith examples of what religious groups are doing to address similar concerns. Be warned teachers! You may find yourself questioning the value of homework and after school activity clubs! Oooh! The up-dated edition has just been published. Buy a copy now or borrow from your local library!

I haven’t read this book yet but the print is awful. The letters appear to blur or bleed slightly on the page. This coupled with a very small print size makes its somewhat uncomfortable to read. A real disappointment.

A great book with brilliant citations to the most vital scientific papers to child development and the natural environment. It is a must-read for educators, parents, and anybody interested in happy children.

I usually read things fairly quickly but I've been dipping in and out of this one - still think it's great and worth a read for all parents/carers/educators as it's full of interesting information and the message is so, so important.

Great book. I'm never excited by the prospect of sitting down to read a book, it's never interested me whatsoever. This book however, was very interesting and controversial about the state of our educational programmes worldwide, and our parenting techniques as well. Great read, great buy.