Do today's kids have "nature-deficit disorder"?

According to the 2005 Duke University Child Well Being Index, American kids are safer now than they have been at any time since 1975. Specifically, violent victimization of children has dropped more than 38 percent. So why do we feel that so much has changed?

Now, to play devil's advocate to my own theory, if kids are safer now it may well be because we're holding them inside. But what we don't measure is the danger of what happens to their imaginations and inner lives because of it -- those other repercussions aren't measured at all.

In terms of where it all comes from -- well, there's a story I mention in my book about a little girl who was stolen from her bedroom and killed, one of these cases that was 'round the clock on CNN for a long time. That happened right over the hill from where I live in California. It's an important story, I don't mean to dismiss it -- but weeks of it, around the clock? We're being conditioned to be fearful all the time. So a lot of it is the media.

That said, the name you chose for your book -- "Nature-Deficit Disorder" -- probably plays directly into the fears of many parents.

I knew that would come up and made a conscious decision to accept the criticism, because I am confident this issue is important enough to deserve attention.

That said, I don't want to dwell on the negative; I'm hopeful that as this change becomes more visible to everyone, and the detriments of this shift begin to be discussed, that we also start to discuss the good news -- the wonderful things that nature play can do for kids, like reducing the symptoms of ADHD, stress reduction, increased creativity, cognitive skills, and full use of the senses. "Last Child in the Woods" may be the first place all this research has come together outside of academia, but there have already been some very brave researchers working on these ideas. I call them brave because most of them are not winning big grants -- since as one of them explained to me, "Who's going to pay for a toy you can't sell?" For instance, at the University of Illinois, there is remarkable study happening that suggests that nature play might be a therapy for kids with ADHD. Well, I would also flip that around and ask if there is something missing in kids' lives that is actually contributing to or aggravating their symptoms? I'm skeptical about a lot of the diagnoses of ADHD, really.

You repeatedly refer to a 1991 study that found that the radius children are allowed to roam outside their homes has shrunk to a ninth of what it was 20 years ago. I remember being a young teenager and sneaking off into the woods to tell stories and smoke cigarettes with my girlfriends. This didn't necessarily promote good health, but it did give me a feeling of independence and the knowledge that I had a life -- a kid's world -- that existed separate from my parents. Maybe what is hurting kids is not just that they have been given less freedom to interact with nature, but that they have been allowed less freedom and independence in general?

Well, there have been a lot of cigarettes smoked in tree houses. (Laughs) Seriously, it's true that not only nature can give the feeling of autonomy. But then when you think about where could kids be getting that instinctual self-confidence and independence -- where could they go -- it's hard to think of a lot of positive places. Nature often provides an atmosphere you can't get anywhere else, a sensation of being solitary. And again, I think there are mysterious things that happen, a lot of which have to do with the full use of our senses. I can't think of many places, other than maybe the New York subways, in which we have our senses going full cylinder. And I make the case in the book -- though I am very careful to say that I am speculating about this -- that letting your kids have some independence in nature, where they can use all their senses, in the long run makes them safer.

Usually hyper-vigilance -- behavior manifested by always being on guard and ready to fight or flee -- is associated with trauma in childhood. But the hyper-awareness gained from early experience in nature may be the flip side of hyper-vigilance  a positive way to pay attention, and, when it's appropriate, to be on guard. We're familiar with the term "street smart." Perhaps another, wider, adaptive intelligence is available to the young? Call it "nature smart." One father I spoke to said he believes that a child in nature is required to make decisions not often encountered in a more constricted, planned environment -- ones that not only present danger, but opportunity. Organized sports, with its finite set of rules, is said to build character. If that is true, and of course it can be, nature experience must do the same, in ways we do not fully understand. A natural environment is far more complex than any playing field. Nature does offer rules and risk, and subtly informs all the senses.

And certainly, the other aspects you mention -- that give a child self-confidence, independence and the sense that they can exist in the world and are somewhere bigger than their parents and their problems -- are all a part of the healing possibilities of nature that I hope people will explore.

Another refrain that surfaces in your book is kids who say, "I don't really have time to play," because they are always being carted off to some kind of lesson or "enrichment" activity. In this context you speak of both the "criminalization" and "commercialization" of play -- that unless play takes the form of a competitive, structured activity, parents and kids think of it as just "wasted time" -- a lazy afternoon of daydreaming. When do you think this shift began?

The shift has been happening for several decades with increasing rapidity. But the essential thing to realize is that we can do something about it. If you think about the phrase "nature-deficit disorder" -- all you really have to do to deal with the disorder is get your kid out in nature now and then -- it's not brain surgery. It's actually fun, and it's fun for parents.

The key is that as long as nature experiences are considered an extracurricular activity, nothing will change. There are folks out there who are hungry for it, who want an alternative to what is going on in terms of organized sports and over-structured lives. The minute it begins to be seen as a health issue, truly a mental health issue -- that wonderful things can happen for your child if you give them direct experiences with nature -- then it's no longer an extracurricular activity and really, it's no longer even leisure. When that kind of conceptual shift happens, I think a lot of parents will be relieved -- they'll have a logical reason to do what their instincts tell them to do anyhow.

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