The Gary Null Blog

July 29, 2011

http://www.miller-mccune.com/environment/reconnecting-children-and-nature-34252/?utm_source=Newsletter172&utm_medium=email&utm_content=0802&utm_campaign=newsletters

It may not be recognized by the AMA, but nature deficit disorder is raising Cain with children in the industrialized world — and it can be fought.

By Judith Stock

Miller-McCune.com

Traditionally, nature has served as humanity’s greatest teacher, the place where artists, poets and scientists go for inspiration. The natural world has the ability to draw us in and allow us to experience a sense of wonder.

But what happens when children fail to bond with nature?

Nature deficit disorder isn’t a medical term but a social phenomenon identified by Richard Louv, the author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder.

Nature deficit disorder describes the high cost of separation between nature and children — including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, childhood obesity, higher rates of physical and emotional illness and vitamin D deficiency, to list a few.