More and more kids are using mobile devices. By 'digitizing the outdoors,' it may be possible to harness that trend and connect more people to nature. (flickr | gnta)

Research suggests that ADHD and other behavioral issues are lessened when children spend time in the outdoors. Most notably, Richard Louv, author of The Last Child in the Woods and architect of the term Nature Deficit Disorder has argued that “an environment-based education movement–at all levels of education–will help students realize that school isn’t supposed to be a polite form of incarceration, but a portal to the wider world.”

One complaint from children, however, is the outdoors are “boring,” which is a far cry from it being a “portal to the wider world.” As a kid I used the outdoors as a way to get away from the trappings of schoolwork and housework. Unlike kids today, I used the outdoors as my outlet–instead of using an electric outlet as my escape.

It’s possible however, that I am aging and just can’t understand what the “kids are into these days.” But if the rise in childhood obesity, ADHD, and other health issues are any indicators of the 21^st century childhood realities—I’ll hold tight to my fort-building, Red Rover, hide-and-go-seek 20^th century kid fun!

Is it possible though that kids today don’t have to choose between the delight of a swinging screen door to the outdoors and the allure of the digital screen? Can we find a way to meld these two dichotomous worlds? Recently, the Obama Administration followed the lead of the Bipartisan Policy Center and held an event on how we can combine 20th century outdoor ideals with the new 21st century electronic leisure time.

Earlier this month the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy held a briefing entitled Outdoor Mobile Games and Public Lands. The room was filled with an usual set: gaming experts and environmentalists. Generally, these two groups have been at odds (or at least haven’t worked closely together very often), with many environmentalists blaming the gaming industry for the uptick in the sedentary indoor child trend. But if we are to really understand the 21st century childhood–game designers are the experts to court.

Both groups discussed the need for collaboration. “Games could help turn a regular park into a storybook” said one game aficionado. It can’t be negated that the popularity of the Olympic National Forest went through the roof once the movie Twilight was released–that’s the power of media, and arguably the power of games. Several agencies across the US government currently fund game development and research programs, but there has been little coordinated effort to target games that get kids to public lands. Seventy-one percent of tweens (kids ages 12-14) play games on a mobile device and that number is only growing.

Digitizing the outdoors is a new trend that’s gaining traction even at the nation’s largest conservation organization. The National Wildlife Federation has entered into the electronic market with several offerings for virtual exploration into nature using the iPad as well as their geo-caching “nature treasure hunt,” a Nature Find website and digitizing their famous Ranger Rick magazine among other electronic advancements.

If we could entice these tech savvy kids with the natural world through games, not only could we begin to reverse the sedentary indoor  childhood trend, but build conservation stewards of tomorrow—one click at a time.

Do you think digitizing the outdoors is a good thing? Tell us what you think below.

This post is by Mat Duerden, coordinator of Texas A&M University’s Sequor Youth Development Initiative (www.ydi.tamu.edu). Mat received a Ph.D. in Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences from Texas A&M and a M.S. in Youth and Family Recreation from Brigham Young University. His research focuses on youth development with specific interests in the program evaluations, outdoor recreation, and youth/adult relationships.

Most youth report having an interest in nature, but kids today spend far less time outside than previous generations (flickr | Jonf728)

My colleagues and I here at Texas A&M University, along with researchers at the University of Tennessee and the National Forest Service, have been collaborating over the last few years to develop and conduct studies to increase our understanding of that relationship.

Specifically, we are interested in more accurately assessing how much time children spend outside. This information will help guide policy and interventions to strengthen the connection between this generation of youth and nature.

In an effort to spread the word about our study efforts and the general topic of connecting youth to nature, I had a chance to sit on a panel with Brigitte Griswold from the Nature Conservancy and Richard Louv from the Children and Nature Network at the American Camp Association National Conference in Atlanta earlier this year. We talked with each other and the audience about research on the relationship between children and nature. I came away with some important insights that I wanted to share with you:

We know a lot about the benefits children experience when they spend time outside.

• There is a rich and growing body of research on children and nature. Connections have been made between children spending time outside and a variety of positive benefits, including increased physical activity, self-discipline, healthy psychological functioning, improved social skills, conservation attitudes and decreased ADHD-related symptoms .

We know enough to act.

• While we as researchers need to continue to strengthen the methodology of our research, as Rich put it during our panel, “we know enough to act.” We have enough evidence that time in nature benefits kids to support efforts to provide as many opportunities in nature as possible.

There is good news about current youth attitudes towards nature.

• A wonderful study recently completed by the Nature Conservancy (PDF) and presented by Brigitte provide some encouraging insights into the relationship between youth and nature. For example, most youth report having an interest in nature. Additionally, many youth feel optimistic about their generation’s ability to serve as positive stewards of the environment. The key appears to be providing youth with meaningful experiences in nature; those who felt they had already had them  were much more likely to identify themselves as environmentalists.

It is important that we work harder to understand what’s keeping kids from spending time in nature.

• In order to help youth spend more time outside, we need to understand the barriers keeping them inside. The Nature Conservancy’s study identified a number of such constraints. Top on the list of youth identified constraints were uncomfortable aspects of being outside (e.g., heat, bugs, etc.), lack of transportation to natural areas and lack of nearby natural areas. Additionally, kids who were overweight and obese reported spending less time outside. Across all groups, youth reported spending more time inside involved with media-related activities.

We have learned a lot over the last 20 years about why it is important for children and youth to spend time–not just outside, but in nature. We also know that today’s children and youth are spending less time outside than previous generations. While there are still many unanswered questions, we know enough to act in informed, evidenced-based ways. It is our hope that our NWF Research Consortium will assist in the answering of some these questions and help promote a renewed and strengthened connection between youth and nature.

For more information on Dr. Duerden’s research please visit ydi.tamu.edu.

It's important for parents to instill a love of the outdoors early in their kids' lives (flickr | dmhergert)

Unfortunately, many young children may not be getting the chance, per a new study published online by the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine:

“On average, we found that about half of preschool children in this nationally representative sample are not being taken outside to play daily by either of their parents.

For children who do not have a regular child care arrangement besides their parents (and therefore, likely do not have other structured venues or care providers to take them outside on a regular basis), 42 percent did not go outside daily.“

The authors added that the report “highlight(s) the considerable room for improvement in parent-supervised outdoor play opportunities for preschool-aged children, which could have numerous benefits for young children’s physical health and development [...] [i]n particular, efforts are needed to increase active outdoor play in children who are girls and nonwhite.”

It can be a struggle for busy modern families to carve out regular time to acclimate their kids to nature, but it’s important to try. That’s because kids whose parents don’t take them outside before they hit school age might already be on the path to a screen-bound, indoor childhood.

In recent years, despite more of an emphasis on schools doing their part to fight youth inactivity and obesity, the School Health Policies and Programs Study (SHPPS), conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), found that that some schools may be cutting back on the time available for recess and PE in order to fit as much classroom time as possible into the school day. According to a 2007 survey and study from the Center on Education Policy,  20% of school districts reported had decreased time for recess—and by an average of 50 minutes per week—under No Child Left Behind. Students at high-minority, high-poverty or urban schools are especially recess-starved.

LiveScience’s Stephanie Pappas also points out that free time has declined over the last couple of decades: “in 1989, a survey by the National Association of Elementary School Principals found that 96 percent of elementary schools had at least one recess during the day. By 1999, only 70 percent of kindergarten classrooms had recess.”

Meanwhile, according to a recent report (PDF) compiled by Stephen Moss on behalf of the UK’s National Trust, the education and health of kids is suffering as they spend less time with nature.

Moss:

We all know the benefits being outdoors can bring, and as parents we want our children to spend more time outdoors than they do. But despite this overwhelming evidence and the different initiatives and schemes run by organisations across the UK, our kids are spending less and less time in the outdoors.

The time to act is now, whilst we still have a generation of parents and grandparents who grew up outdoors and can pass on their experience and whilst there remains a determination to do something positive in this area.

Children who play outside regularly are healthier, more creative in their play, show better concentration, sleep better and get along better with others. Sometimes ignored but no less important, research (PDF) has shown that outdoor activities like hiking or camping can positively influence a kid’s attitudes toward nature (and environmentally conscious behavior) when they grow up. It’s important for parents to instill a love of the outdoors when their kids are young—hoping that recess will take care of it a few years down the road may not be realistic.

You can read NWF’s Whole Child Report here for more on the benefits of outdoor play, use NWF’s Activity Finder to explore ideas for helping your kids connect with nature or read up on First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” initiative. See our quick ‘Be Out There’ guide for parents if you’re not quite sure where to start, or browse the full “Outdoor Play for Every Day: A Parent’s Guide for Overcoming Common Obstacles to Kids and Outdoor Play.”

The author, her mother and her grandfather.

Born in Jamaica, my grandfather loved the outdoors. Who wouldn’t love it, in a place where the deep blue color in the ocean isn’t an optical illusion and there is no need for Vitamin D tablets—a walk along the palm tree lined streets or a stroll along the beach is all you need.

I used to ask him when I was young why he had so many muscles because he didn’t go to the gym. He used to look at me, laugh, gesture to the outdoors and say “why would I go to a gym?” Why indeed.

My grandparent’s garage wall was filled with tools and fishing rods for all their grandchildren—and there were a bunch of us.

The drive to the docks were always the most fun, all of us kids crammed into a car with our heads hanging out the window taking in the smell of the early morning and noticing the change in the air as we got closer to the water.   As soon as we arrived we would all spring out of the car like Jack-in-the-Boxes itching to be the one who brought in the first catch of the day.  We were like little sailors (minus the boat) lined up on the dock taking in the sweet salty smell of the water and watching the sun rise higher and higher in the sky. Nothing used to beat those mornings with my family outside—well, maybe the fish dinner that my grandmother would make that evening.

My grandparents were sustainable before it was cool.

Whether we were picking callaloo and mint from their enormous backyard garden or fishing on the dock or swinging from the handmade swing my grandfather fashioned for me from their largest tree—the outdoors was always a place where family and adventure intertwined.

What Has Changed

Many years have passed since those family outdoor adventures, and it saddens me that pollution has stopped my grandfather from being able to take my younger cousins on the fishing trips I once enjoyed so much. Unfortunately, it’s not just pollution that has kept them from the outdoors—today kids spend on average 7-10 hours plugged into electronics and just minutes in the outdoors.  Where I used to make up stories and find mystery under stones or within the limbs of trees, they seek out video games and the television to entertain themselves.

Did I watch TV as kid, sure! But I never did find a show or game that provided me with the joy that the feel of a fishing rod in my hands; sight of the sun glistening off the water; and the burst of giggles at the first catch of the morning ever gave me.  Nope, there is no screen that has ever given me more excitement as a kid or adult for that matter, than the sound of a screen door swinging open to the adventures that await me in the outdoors.

To learn more, take a look at Kristy Myers’s five tips for spending time in nature with your family, see our Outdoors and Family Channel for easy outdoor activities or check out how you can get involved in NWF’s Be Out There campaign to connect kids with nature.

Me, Max, frolicking with a monster, as depicted in a wall painting in Saskatoon, SK, Canada (Wikimedia Commons via flickr | Scott Woods-Fehr)

A big part of their job was to teach us about magical kismet and the possibility of the world at large, that most of life’s limits were of our own making.

Many of the books that did this best reveled in the promise of the outdoors—think of Frog and Toad’s green-and-brown universe or the nightscapes of Maurice Sendak’s lunatic island.

Here’s the sad part: a new report in the journal Sociological Inquiry suggests that depictions of nature in illustrated children’s books have declined over the past few decades, a shift that may reflect a wider estrangement from the environment:

 …[T]he increasing isolation of people from the natural world may have resulted in a decline in the perceived relevance of these environmental issues and resulted in fewer stories and depictions. Our findings support [this] isolation hypothesis. There have been significant declines in depictions of natural environments and animals while built environments have become much more common.

‘These environmental issues’ are “critical…problems, such as decline in biodiversity and deforestation.”

Miller-McCune:

…[I]mages of built and natural environments were “almost equally likely to be present” in books published from the late 1930s through the 1960s. But in the mid-1970s, illustrations of the built environment started to increase in number, while there were fewer and fewer featuring the natural environment. […] “This gap widened in every subsequent decade,” Williams and his colleagues write. “Natural environments have all but disappeared.”

Williams and co. also noted that wild animals have played a steadily declining role in books published since the 1960s.

NWF has advocated extensively for the movement to connect kids to nature, but this report raises a little-remembered aspect of that fight: we can’t reach kids through parents and teachers alone. The culture that surrounds them in the form of books, magazines, TV shows and the like is a major font of youthful inspiration, or can be, and its steady slide away from nature is telling (the study concludes that “today’s generation of children are not being socialized, at least through this source, toward an understanding and appreciation of the natural world and the place of humans within it“). Ranger Rick and other standard-bearers of wilderness-friendly youth media have their work cut out for them.

To learn more about the changing nature of childhood and how to fight ‘nature deficit disorder,’ visit our Be Out There page and read about the scourge of the modern TV-driven childhood.

Is this the message Congress is sending to kids? (flickr | annshi)

Also on the chopping block is the Transportation Enhancements (TE) program, which includes federally funded projects that improve communities’ transportation options.

So, why should we save these programs?

According to the Alliance for Biking and Walking, bike commuting increased 57 percent between 2000 and 2009. Furthermore, the case for TE and SRTS highlights another way our nation’s health and safety are being threatened. Safe, accessible trails perform a wide range of useful functions, including:

• Connecting kids to nature, something most kids don’t do on a regular basis
  

• Keeping visitors safe on paths through sensitive areas

• Generating revenue for local economies dependent on visitors and tourism

• Preserving green spaces in urban areas
  

My Two Cents

Near my Ohio hometown, even the newest subdivisions are showing signs of neglect as the region faces a weak housing market. For those who live here, car-free living is not an option. Whether it’s going to the grocery store half a mile away, or to school across the highway, everybody is dependent on their car for a safe and convenient trip. Such is sprawl.

More disturbing is the number of kids dashing across busy streets – many lacking sidewalks or crosswalks – on their way to school. I should know, as a kid whose “commute” included, at times, scaling a fence and crossing private property to avoid the busy road. My mom was able to help sometimes, dropping me off at the bus stop, but most other kids don’t have that option. The government has spent billions making sure our cars are safer, but pedestrian deaths, including children, are increasing.

The Health Case

At a time in our history when the current generation of youngsters may not live as long as their parents did due to obesity-related diseased like Type-II Diabetes and heart disease, we cannot afford to make it even more difficult for kids to get  moving outdoors! Walking to school safely should not be a privilege reserved for those lucky enough to live in green neighborhoods. Too many children, our nation’s future innovators, job creators and parents, are in danger during what could be the only time of day they are getting outside.

Rather than strengthening our cities and keeping children safe, this bill is yet another example of the cut-all-but-the-reelection-funders attitude prevailing in the House. The bill extols dirty fossil fuels, saying that sprawl and more drilling for oil and gas is in America’s best interest. Cleaner, efficient transportation is largely ignored or cut. Why would we want a sixty-year-old approach to our 21st century transportation needs?  Not for the good of the kids, that much is clear.

Contact your Representative and tell them keep funding for Safe Routes to School.

Glacier National Park in Montana (flickr | Meredith Rendall Photography)

But of all the sessions and events, I was especially interested in yesterday’s discussion about Health and Wellness, featuring Kevin Coyle, NWF’s VP for Education and Training.

So: what do National Parks have to do with health? I mean, other than the alarming trend of pic-a-nic basket overconsumption in Jellystone Park by overweight, wise-cracking bears?

Well, research shows that kids are spending about half as much time outside as they did 20 years ago, with many opting for heavy screen time instead (on average, about 7 or 8 hours a day). That indoor/inactive kid trend has likely contributed to an increase in childhood obesity rates and related health problems; hurt school performance; played a part in issues such as ADHD and sleep deprivation; and generally eroded our kids’ emotional wellbeing (see more reasons to get outside here).

Health problems like these warrant a multifaceted approach, but one of the best ways of getting kids outside and active (and healthier) is by using our national and state park systems. As an added benefit, getting kids out into America’s parks and engendering a love of the outdoors will give us a better chance of making sure the parks themselves are taken care of for generations to come.

Kevin:

“We focus on kids because that’s the generation we’re losing…and when you look at those numbers, you realize there are [millions of] kids in the country…about 7 million of them are still going out on a regular basis and playing—just free play in the outdoors. We want to try and increase that by another 10 million in the next three to five years.”

[...]

“There’s no future to conservation, to the National Park system, to state park systems, if [the indoor child phenomenon] continues. We’ve got to figure out how to reverse this…”

More:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Fortunately, parks aren’t a tough sell. To read more about why your family will love visiting National Parks if they don’t already, click here.

Swallow Falls State Park in Garrett County, MD (flickr | cseeman)

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley announced recently that nearly $23 million will go toward State Park and public land projects in the proposed FY2013 budget, with a special emphasis on their role as resources to connect the state’s families with the outdoors and provide “better natural play areas for children”:

…The State’s parks will also serve as outdoor classrooms for the State’s new environmental literacy requirements.

“State Parks are the epitome of affordable getaways for families, models for living in harmony with nature, and a vital tonic for the mind, body and spirit,” said Tim Casey, Chair of the Governor’s State Park Advisory Commission. “These strategic investments will benefit millions of Marylanders, increasing access to the outdoors, creating jobs and restoring the environment for today and future generations.”

The budget announcement is only the latest example of Maryland’s support for connecting kids with nature.

Governor O’Malley joined Congressman John Sarbanes, Maryland Secretary of Natural Resources John Griffin, State Superintendent Nancy Grasmick and members of the No Child Left Inside Coalition in 2008 to establish the Maryland Partnership for Children in Nature, a project to ensure all Maryland young people have the opportunity to connect with the natural world and become conservation stewards. Last June, First Lady Katie O’Malley kicked off the Great American Backyard Campout with help from NWF and the Maryland Park Service, pitching a tent with local kids to demonstrate one of the outdoor activities that make up the Maryland Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights.

As for making sure these kids learn about nature in the classroom too, the State Board of the Maryland Department of Education adopted a new policy last year—the first of its kind—requiring high school students in the state to attain a basic level of environmental literacy before graduation. A few months later, Congressman John Paul Sarbanes, who represents Maryland’s third district, introduced a House version of the No Child Left Inside Act (NCLI) to assist states in the development and implementation of stronger environmental literacy programs for K-12 students.

You can see the Maryland State Parks Economic Impact and Visitor Study online here, and stay tuned to Wildlife Promise for updates on this major statement in support of natural play.

Photo: Michael Devlin

Take it away, Diana S Grigsby-Toussaint, Sang-Hyun Chi and Barbara H. Fiese (PDF):

“… [E]xposure to greener neighborhoods encourages children to spend more time outdoors where they may reap both physiological and cognitive benefits. Conversely, children with the lowest levels of neighborhood greenness were least likely to spend time playing outdoors, engaging in active or quiet play (rainy day kids).

In addition to their own research, the authors point to examples including “initiatives using landscape architecture to create green elementary school grounds in Canada, which found a 70% increase in light and moderate physical activity among children.”

Those of us lucky enough to grow up with backyards and trees get this, and a growing body of research shows why it’s especially important: children who play outside are healthier, more creative in their play and more likely (PDF) to have positive attitudes toward nature (and environmentally conscious behavior) when they grow up. Plus, all those “physiological and cognitive benefits.”

However, verdant parks and other spaces aren’t enough:

While neighborhood greenness influenced levels of physical activity among these preschool-aged children, as Cleland et al [35] observed, parental support factors such as engaging in physical activity with children also plays a role. This may explain why sporty kids were more likely to engage in much more active outdoor physical activity compared to rainy day kids, although both groups lived in areas with similar levels of neighborhood greenness.

As always, parents and other adults have an important role. The study underscores this along with the importance of giving non-green-neighborhood kids the opportunity to connect with the outdoors—refer back to this post on nature’s healing potential, where I linked to the story of an abuse survivor who spends time leading inner-city kids on hikes and backpacking trips. Bottom line: children sometimes need help to connect to nature.

To learn more, take a look at Kristy Myers’s five tips for spending time in nature with your family, see our Outdoors and Family Channel for easy winter outdoor activities or check out how you can get involved in NWF’s Be Out There campaign to connect kids with nature.

Take the story of 24-year-old Gwen Miller of Lombard, IL, who suffered traumatic abuse as a child and has since used nature as a refuge and emotional salve. Her goal is to help other survivors of childhood abuse recover through exposure to the outdoors:

Miller’s [introduced people to nature] by leading inner-city kids on hikes and backpacking trips, as well as traveling to Washington, D.C., to lobby for legislation that encourages kids to go outside. Miller’s outdoor activism is motivated by her desire to help young people benefit from the natural world.

“When you like something, you care more about it and you want to protect it,” she said. “Without an interest and a comfort level in nature, a child might not see conservation as an important factor in life.”

More and more research and anecdotal evidence indicates that nature experiences buoy our mental and emotional well-being—just last week Melinda Koslow wrote about Beyond Tucson, a day-long nature experience intended to help the Arizonans come to terms with the 2011 shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

As it turns out, the young woman in the story above traveled to DC in late September with Sierra Club volunteers to advocate for the Healthy Kids Outdoors Act, which would give states funds to develop plans to get more children into the outdoors. As part of that week’s Great Outdoors America Week events I retold some stories from Outdoors Alliance for Kids-hosted briefing including the tale of an Iraq war veteran who said he “would be dead or in jail” without the therapy offered by the great outdoors.

Fortunately, you don’t need to climb a mountain or go into an intensive counseling program to reap nature’s emotional benefits.

“Even going on nature hikes can be really calming — simple hikes, time spent reflecting in nature, journaling in nature,” Miller said. “There’s a lot of different ways you can use nature for therapy.”

Miller wants her outdoor activism focused on children, whom she says can benefit from connecting with the outdoors even if they don’t need therapy.