Various movements are growing in the USA to encourage children to get outside and away from computer screens and electronic games. Their proponents also claim significant health benefits, saying that their children become happier, healthier and smarter as a result of more time spent with nature.

According to this article (“Got Dirt? Beyond Nature-Deficit Disorder”), the practice has substantial backing:

Howard Frumkin, director of the National Center for Environmental Health at Centers for Disease Control, recently describes the clear benefits of nature experiences to healthy child development, and to adult well-being.

“In the same way that protecting water and protecting air are strategies for promoting public health, protecting natural landscapes can be seen as a powerful form of preventive medicine,” he says. He believes that future research about the positive health effects of nature should be conducted in collaboration with architects, urban planners, park designers, and landscape architects. “Of course, there is still much we need to learn, such as what kinds of nature contact are most beneficial to health, how much contact is needed and how to measure that, and what groups of people benefit most. But we know enough to act.”

There’s even a teenager-founded group, Geeks in the Woods, that, “makes a U-turn back to…a balance between virtual reality and what sustains all life…nature.”

The article suggest these five steps for parents:

1. Go for a family walk when the moon is full.
2. Help your child discover a hidden universe in a piece of wood left on the ground.
3. Tell your children stories about your special childhood places in nature. Then help them find their own.
4. Revive old traditions for keeping nature collections.
5. Invent your own nature game.

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