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Allowing children to regularly explore and experience nature can lead to positive health benefits including lowering the risk of childhood obesity, reducing allergies, and improving mental health. Through nature children experience more physical activity than indoor entertainment which can combat childhood obesity. While in nature a child’s body can adapt to allergies and eventually become immune. Lastly nature can help to improve a child’s overall mental health. Unfortunately interactions with nature have decreased substantially for children when compared to the time their parents spent with nature during their childhood years. This decline is caused by factors such as parental anxiety, and fast paced lifestyles. Despite the factors that caused the decline in children’s experiences with nature there are ways that parents and caregivers can increase nature experience and exploration for their children, allowing them to reap all the benefits nature provides.
With the current obesity epidemic on the rise the number of children in the United States diagnosed as being obese is greatly increasing. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention childhood obesity has more than doubled in the past 30 years, and in 2010 it was estimated that over one third of the child population was either considered overweight or obese. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014) Fortunately, allowing children to openly explore and experience nature can greatly lower the risk for childhood obesity. As children play outdoors they partake in various physical activities. These activities can include games such as tag, hide and go seek, or even sports such as soccer and basketball. Other activities are geared toward individual play suc...
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...is only logical that children should be enabled and encouraged to partake in outdoor activities.
Works Cited
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2014, February 12). Adolescent and School Health. Retrieved from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/obesity/facts.htm
Hitti, M. (2014, February 12). ADHD in Children Health Center. Retrieved from WebMD: http://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/childhood-adhd/news/20040827/nature-helps-fight-adhd
News, N. N. (2014, February 12). Get back to nature to reduce allergies and asthma . Retrieved from NYR Natrual News : http://www.nyrnaturalnews.com/nature/2012/05/get-back-to-nature-to-reduce-allergies-and-asthma/
Vindum, T. (2014, February 12). Reduce Stress in the Great Outdoors. Retrieved from Athletachi : http://www.athleta.net/2011/02/23/reduce-stress-in-the-great-outdoors/
Have you noticed that we feel a powerful desire to connect with nature during difficult times? Whether we are injured, depressed or sad our inclination towards nature increases. Patients in hospitals recover faster if they are in a room with a nice view. Why? Because nature is so pure and powerful that can restore our spirits and heal our bodies and minds. The beauty of nature has been praised in art, poetry, writings and films. Naturalists, poets and writers have documented the many benefits of spending time in nature. "Calypso Borealis" by Muir and "I wandered Lonely as a Cloud" by Wordsworth are two great pieces of literature where our hearts are filled with an indescribable emotion. John Muir and William Wordsworth express their relationship
Why Getting Outside is So Good for You. SparkPeople, Inc., 2014. Web. 9 May 2014. .
The debate over technology being healthy for our children has been a debate that has gone on for years. It appears as though the tragedy that children are missing out on hands-on nature is definitely something we all must learn to accept. Nicholas D. Kristof hits the nail on the head when he suggest that we try to preserve nature but we don’t promote natural activity such as hiking, biking, camping, and “discovering the hard way what a wasp nest looks like”. Kristof does an effective job getting the point across on experiencing nature and limiting technology. He is a father that is destined for his young daughter to know about the outdoors with personal experimentation. Kristof’s intended audience is geared toward people that want their children and themselves to be involved in nature, but they have been consumed with this technological age.
Richard Louv explains how people can find “freedom, fantasy, and privacy… a separate peace” (7) in nature. Many researchers are becoming aware of the positive effects nature can provide. Previous generations often tell stories of their childhood; stories about running around in fields or woods. They talk about how it gave them feelings of euphoria and freeness. Nowadays, rarely will one hear of today’s children telling similar stories. With more time being spent indoors, doing homework, and using technology, there are fewer kids enjoying the wonders of the outdoors. Studies have shown that children, and people in general, should spend more time in nature. Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods discusses how people are negatively affected without exposure to nature; there are vital steps that individuals, communities, and the nation can take to help with nature-deficit disorder.
While this era has helped improve several aspects of the world, it has also harmed a significant element in today’s society. The emerging generations are losing their connections with the natural world. A few decades ago, kids would have fun by playing outside with each other. Nowadays, parents buy their children handheld devices to provide entertainment, and fail to see how harmful they can be to a child’s health. Children lose the idea of what it means to have fun, and rely on a material possession for what should be coming from natural means. Statistics have shown the results of a lack of physical activity in a growing child is detrimental to their adult lives. Being active and in touch with nature provides a healthy lifestyle, and should be added to everyone’s routine. Moreover, obesity is a dilemma within the United States, and is a concern for a large portion of the population. More than one-third of adults in the United States are considered obese. The causes for such a statistic can all lead to losing touch with nature. Whether it is processed foods, transportation, or technology, they all stem from the idea of separating from nature. The more progressive the world becomes, the farther the relationship with the environment decays. Creating food through unnatural processes are harmful in the long run. The nature of man is to be outside and live in harmony with the Earth.
Let’s pause for a second, let’s take a look what nature has for us. It is beautiful and yet harmless. Kids’ don’t spend the sufficient time to intake the benefits of nature. Louv says, “Playtime, especially unstructured imaginative, exploratory play is increasingly recognized as an essential component of wholesome child development” (48). He is saying to let our kids free and explore on their own. It is what brings fun to their lives. Knowing what comes next it’s pretty boring. Imagination brings excitement and knowledge to the human kind.
In Document C, Dr. Scott proposes a question to his audience of those who may have their doubts. He asks "If people don't spend any time outside, why are they going to care about their local places, let alone the national parks in the distance? " Document C. -. Although childhood experiences have evolved over generations, embracing the outdoors should not be something that turns into a fairy tale for future children. Despite the great effects rewilding may have, there are its downsides as well.
Ecotherapy is an amalgamation of the ideas of ecopsychology and psychotherapy. At its core, ecotherapy claims that personal human distress can be alleviated by developing a connection with nature. It can include a variety of techniques from “horticulture therapy, wilderness excursion work, time stress management and certain kinds of animal-assisted therapy” (Chalquist, 2009). In the emerging sub-field it is often acknowledged that human emotional ailments come from the industrial world in which we live. Humans are evolutionarily wired to react and respond to nature in a way that manmade settings are not currently fulfilling. This disconnect is what allows many mental illnesses to thrive. It is not suggested that a reconnection
Childhood Obesity in America. (n.d.). Retrieved Jan 22, 2011, from Seattle Sutton's Healthy Eating: www.seattlesutton.com/media/document/childhood-obesity-in-america
...ing actively involved with what’s going on with nature. There are many solutions to the “nature deficit.” Such as, incentives and initiatives. The incentives are growing, as are the initiatives. The Children and Nature Network are putting a bunch of programs together to get teens and children outdoors. Recess, schoolyard gardens and parks will help get children outside. Incentives can be having a butterfly land on one’s nose or the sheer fact of being with a friend. Those are some of the incentives and initiatives that are being done to get children outside. Green therapy is beneficial to all. Children, teens and even adults can benefit from. it. It is being used as a therapeutic intervention for many. Green therapy is a growing field. It can save children and teens from obesity, overstimulation and dysregulation (Louv, 2008.) Green therapy will last a lifetime.
Nature’s beauty can help a person become a happier and more calm. Bryant personifies nature to explain the Earth’s beauty and how it is able to give a feeling of peace and calmness. In Nature, Emerson also shows examples of nature and its beauty. “I am the lover of uncontained and immortal beauty. In the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate than in streets or villages” (Emerson 16-18).
Because they are becoming more and more obese, children in America today may suffer the consequences of not having good health when they get older and of living a much shorter life than today’s adults. Contrary to many beliefs, “obesity, which used to be a middle-aged and later phenomenon, now, has spread to younger ages, in the context of a major decrease in physical activity” said Caleb Finch (“Wasowicz”). More than half the time, this obesity follows a child into their adulthood. Researchers are frequently asked many questions about the causes of obesity, and they are frequently finding answers. Sometimes, parents are too scared to inform their children and doctors are afraid of upsetting their patients. Also, food in larger, unhealthier portions is easier to access than healthy foods, and many children do not exercise as much as they should. Obesity can have detrimental effects on a child’s physical and mental well being.
By now almost everyone has heard about child obesity in America, but just how high are the rates? The answer might surprise you. According to Nate Whitman, a writer for The Huffington Post, “rates of obesity have doubled in 2- to 5-year-olds, quadrupled in 6- to 11-year-olds, and tripled in 12- to 19-year-olds” (par. 2). This is due to more children staying inside and only doing activities such as video games. They do not interact with anyone besides whomever they are talking to online. These findings are astonishing to say the least. What can we do to combat this? Involvement in organized sports helps children develop their social skills, improve their academic progress, and stay active.
All parents wants what is best for their kids, and with the ever growing demand of kids learning technology in the classrooms and recess being cut from many schools across the United States, it’s important to maintain a level of outdoor play that matters. Obesity is at an all-time high here in the United States and we know screen time is partially to blame. Today I want to share a few ways you can encourage kids to play outdoors so that you can raise well-rounded kids that have a love for their environment.
In an article entitled “How Nature Can Make You Kinder, Happier, and More Creative”, the author, Jill Suttie, a doctor of psychology and Greater Good’s book review editor, believes that being exposed to nature can have positive effects on a person’s mindset and behavior. Suttie discusses how through conducted experiments and studies, nature has been proven to improve a person’s mental and emotional state. The author starts off the article by recounting her own experience with nature and how that affected her. She provides a few quotes from David Strayer, a cognitive neuroscientist and a professor in the University of Utah, who believes that nature has profound changes on the brain and the body.