Douglas M. King highlights the importance of nature-based play for children in light of their decreasing contact with the outdoors.

Issue at hand:

  • Compared to 50 years ago, children have fewer opportunities for free play outdoors and regular contact with the natural world
  • Parental fears, more focus on education and limited outdoor play spaces keep children indoors
  • The time children have to play has decreased by at least 25%, while the time they spend in school has increased by almost 25%
  • As a result of little or no regular contact with the natural environment children come to see themselves as separate and not part of the natural world

Why is the connection between children and nature decreasing?

  • The connection is being replaced by the virtual world 
  • Environmental education is not geared to the child’s perspective and is too abstract for them to find interesting

Children’s connection to nature:

  • Educators: positive attitudes towards the natural environment develops during early and middle childhood, and requires regular interaction with nearby nature
  • Research has shown that humans carry nature-based genetic coding and instincts, and children are born with a natural sense of relatedness to nature
  • Children develop an “environmental ethic” through regular contact with nature
  • Animals, particularly baby animals are “an endless source of wonder for children”
    • Children interact instinctively and naturally with animals, talk to them, and invest in them emotionally
    • Contact can foster a caring attitude and sense of responsibility towards living things

“The greater the amount of exposure, the greater the benefits”;

  • Children with symptoms of ADHD are better able to concentrate after contact with nature
  • Children score higher on tests of concentration and self-discipline, show more advanced physical fitness, including coordination, balance and agility, and are sick less often
  • Children’s play is more diverse, with imaginative and creative play that fosters language and collaborative skills
  • Play in nature can reduce antisocial behavior and improve children’s resilience

Responses:

  • Movement to transform playground design in preschool and kindergarten settings from barren, manufactured areas into naturalized environments to further children’s development
  • Landscape, vegetation and weather are central to these designs
  • Naturalized playgrounds are designed from a child’s perspective, that responds to children’s development tasks and their need to interact with nature and stimulate children’s natural curiosity, imagination and wonder
  • The Royal Botanical Gardens in Kandy (Sri Lanka) is developing a Children’s Educational Centre
children playing
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