Are children losing appreciation and contact with natural world?

By Douglas M King, Ph. D

Teacher, consultant, author in Early Childhood Education

douglasking1939@yahoo.com

Nineteenth century psychologist Herbert Spencer published his book, in which he theorised the “surplus energy theory,” that the main reason for children’s play is to get rid of surplus energy. Playgrounds were for physical play, where children ‘burn off steam,’ and not for the other domains of development or for learning. Most playgrounds typically have conventional manufactured play equipment, and often are devoid of nature and vegetation and more likely to be grey rather than green and where there is neither shade, shelter nor opportunities to interact with nature. Playground designs often lack understanding of how quality outdoor play environments can provide children with rich educational opportunities, particularly in the area of social skills and environmental learning.

Modern humans evolved and have lived in intimate contact with nature, in the savannahs and forests, for almost their entire history. The cultivation of plants and the domestication of animals allowed our ancestors to dwell in permanent settlements, to expand their population more rapidly, and become divorced from nature. Only more recently have most people lived in urban areas although still with some contact to nature.

Two hundred years ago or in more recent times, most children spent their days surrounded by fields, farms or in the wild nature, at its edges. But even as recently as 50 years ago, children had access to nature spending much of their time outdoors, using the sidewalks, streets, playgrounds, parks, greenways, vacant lots and other spaces “left over” during the urbanisation process or the fields, forests, streams and parks of suburbia. Children had the freedom to play, explore and interact with the natural world, with little or no restriction or supervision.

Children today have few opportunities for outdoor free play and regular contact with the natural world. Their physical boundaries have shrunk for many reasons. A ‘culture of fear’ and ‘stranger danger,’ has parents concerned for their children’s physical and social safety. Fears of ultraviolet rays, insect-borne diseases and various forms of pollution add to the reasons for adults to keep children indoors. Furthermore, children’s lives have become structured and scheduled by adults, who hold the mistaken belief that success in education is the only path to become more successful as adults.

The culture of childhood, with natural play outside, is gone and children’s everyday life has shifted to the indoors, and as a result children’s opportunity for direct and spontaneous contact with nature is a vanishing experience of childhood. This breeds apathy towards environmental concerns and knowledge. Children’s play environments have dramatically changed in the last few decades, but also the time children have to play has decreased by at least 25% and the time they spent in school increased by almost 25%.

With children’s lives disconnected from the natural world, their experiences are influenced in media, written language and visual images. The virtual is replacing the real by TV, nature documentaries, National Geographic and other nature TV channels as well as environmental fundraising appeals that condition children to think that nature is in far-away places they will never experience, Children are losing the understanding that nature can exist in their own environment, and they grow up with limited knowledge and appreciation of the natural world.

With children’s access to the outdoors and the natural world becoming increasingly limited, or nonexistent, childcare, kindergarten and schools, where children can spend 40 to 50 hours per week, may be the last opportunity to reconnect children with the natural world and create a future generation that values and preserves nature. Many leading educators agree that positive attitudes towards the natural environment develops during early and middle childhood and requires regular interaction with nearby nature. It may be that if children don’t develop a sense of respect and caring for the natural environment, during their early years, they risk never developing such attitudes.

Much environmental education approaches from an adult’s, rather than a child’s perspective. Children’s curiosity with the natural world, and the unique way of knowing, requires discovery and exploratory learning, often referred to as hands on, rather than a didactic approach. Most environmental education teaches children too abstractly, and at too early of an age about concepts, like rainforest destruction, acid rain, ozone holes and whale hunting which is difficult for them to comprehend and so tune out and develop a vagueness to the issues. Fact full knowledge, devoid of interest, will not stick. But if interest comes first, knowledge is sure to follow. Environmental education programmes for young children that tries to impart knowledge and responsibility is futile before children have been allowed to develop a close relationship with the earth where nature itself is children’s best teacher. It is important, during the preschool years, to help children discover the child’s natural sense of themselves in relation to the natural world. Human evolution in the natural world, according to some experts, possess nature-based genetic coding and instincts, and children are born with a natural sense of relatedness to nature. Children love stories of fairy tales set in nature and populated by animal characters.

Children’s development with little or no regular contact with the natural environment is a process of socialisation by which children come to see themselves as separate and not a part of the natural world. Developing children’s understanding and experience should be the main natural world objective for children in the early years when children form the values, attitudes, and basic orientation toward the world that they will carry with them throughout their lives. Young children are implicitly drawn to animals and especially baby animals, and they are an endless source of wonder for children, fostering a caring attitude and sense of responsibility towards living things. Children interact instinctively and naturally with animals, talk to them, and invest in them emotionally. Animals constitute a high percentage of the characters employed in language acquisition and counting in children’s preschool books.

There is a growing movement in some developed countries to transform playground design in preschool and kindergarten settings from barren areas of grass, asphalt, and manufactured equipment into naturalised environments for children’s play, exploration and discovery. Adventure playgrounds, using natural materials, sand and water and gardens for growing flowers, vegetables, and plants, are examples of early childhood playground design. These new naturalised play environments do not depend on manufactured equipment. Rather they use the landscape and its vegetation and materials as both the play setting and the play materials. Naturalised playgrounds are designed from a child’s perspective as informal, even wild, and as a place that responds to children’s development tasks and their need to interact with nature and stimulate children’s natural curiosity, imagination and wonder. They need to experience the changing seasons, wind, light, sounds and weather and enjoy natural places to sit in, on, under, lean against, climb and provide shelter and shade.

In addition to the opportunities for children to develop an environmental ethic through regular contact with nature, natural environments offer children many additional benefits and the natural environment has positive effects on the well-being of adults, including better psychological well-being, superior cognitive functioning, fewer physical ailments and speedier recovery from illness. Teachers have found that children with symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are better able to concentrate after contact with nature. It is also possible that children with views of and contact with nature score higher on tests of concentration and self-discipline, show more advanced physical fitness, including coordination, balance and agility, and are sick less often. When children play in natural environments, their play is more diverse with imaginative and creative play that fosters language and collaborative skills. Exposure to natural environments can improve children’s awareness, reasoning and observational skills. It can also buffer the impact of life stress on children and helps them deal with adversity. The greater the amount of exposure, the greater the benefits. Play in a diverse natural environment helps to reduce antisocial behaviour, such as violence, bullying, vandalism and littering. Natural outdoor environments help children develop powers of observation and creativity and away from a world of technology and help to develop children’s independence and autonomy.

Outdoor play and experience in all its variety can greatly benefit children and society. The ability to grow and learn to their fullest in their unique experiential way is through the joy of exploration and discovery in the natural world. But, perhaps, even more important, naturalised playgrounds and positive exposure to natural environments offer the hope that children will develop the environmental values to become the future stewards of the Earth who will preserve the diversity and wonder of Nature.

It is of positive interest to note that the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kandy is developing a Children’s Educational Centre, which will include many of the features and ideas expressed in this article.