Nature Deficit Disorder
Did you know that the typical American child spends 44.5 hours per week plugged into electronic media (not including homework and school)*?
Today’s overscheduled kids are increasingly “plugged in” to electronic devices and unplugged from nature. Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, refers to this nature-child disconnect as “nature deficit disorder.” Louv’s book brings together a growing body of research that shows a link between the absence of nature in today’s wired generation to some of the most disturbing trends in children, including obesity, attention deficit disorders, depression and shortened life expectancy.
“I like to play indoors better ‘cause that’s where all the electrical outlets are.”
A fourth-grader in San Diego, CA
Even in northern Michigan where access to natural resources is seemingly limitless, the tendency for children to get outdoors is not a given and “nature deficit” still exists. Multiple factors contribute to this nationwide phenomenon:
Our culture places an increasingly high value on technology
Less green space and less access to it
Parents sense a “stranger danger” and are afraid to allow their children to play outside
Schools are eliminating recess time and cutting outdoor/environmental field trips
Kids are so overscheduled that they just do not have time to play unless it is through an organized sport
What the research shows on nature-deficit disorder:
Nature-deficit occurs in kids, adults, families and communities.
91% of parents cite TV, computers and video games as the main cause of their children’s disinterest in outdoor play
A study found that young people could identify 1000 corporate logos but fewer than 10 plants or animals native to their backyards.
47 million Americans live in neighborhoods with convenants agains outdoor play (e.g., rules agains treehouses, climbing trees, skateboards, basketball nets, and even sidewalk chalk).
40% of schools nationwide have cut recess due to funding cuts and/or need for more instructional time due to pressure created by high-stakes academic testing
Fewer than 1 in 5 children walk or ride a bike to school.
500% increase in childhood obesity since the 1960’s (from 4% to 20%).
Greatest increase in child obesity in our history occurred during the same decades as the greatest increase in organized sports for children.
Our children may be the first generation at risk of having a shorter lifespan than their parents
Children have less time for unstructured, creative play in the outdoors than ever before in human history.
*Click here for more info on the 2005 Kaiser Family Foundation Study: Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-olds
