Book
Last child in the woods : saving our children from nature-deficit disorder / Richard Louv.
Record details
- ISBN: 1565123913
- Physical Description: x, 323 p.
- Publisher: Chapel Hill, N.C. : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2005.
Content descriptions
| Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references (p. [311]-319). |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Nature > Psychological aspects Children and the environment. |
Available copies
- 0 of 1 copy available at Tsuga Consortium.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lakeshore Branch | 155.418 Lou | 31681001588995 | NONFIC | Checked out | 06/03/2025 |
- Baker & Taylor
Presents a study showing how a child's lack of connection to nature can cause obesity, distraction, and depression, and offers suggestions on how nature can be used to enhance problem-solving and critical thinking skills. - Baker & Taylor
Warning parents about the dangers of allowing children to grow up without contact with natural areas, this provocative study shows how this lack of connection to nature causes obesity, distraction, and depression and offers helpful suggestions on how to develop an environment-based educational program that can enhance children's problem-solving, critical thinking, and decision-making skills. - Workman Press.
âI like to play indoors better âcause thatâs where all the electrical outlets are,â reports a fourth grader. But itâs not only computers, television, and video games that are keeping kids inside. Itâs also their parentsâ fears of traffic, strangers, Lyme disease, and West Nile virus; their schoolsâ emphasis on more and more homework; their structured schedules; and their lack of access to natural areas. Local governments, neighborhood associations, and even organizations devoted to the outdoors are placing legal and regulatory constraints on many wild spaces, sometimes making natural play a crime.
As childrenâs connections to nature diminish and the social, psychological, and spiritual implications become apparent, new research shows that nature can offer powerful therapy for such maladies as depression, obesity, and attentiondeficit disorder. Environment-based education dramatically improves standardized test scores and grade-point averages and develops skills in problem solving, critical thinking, and decision making. Anecdotal evidence strongly suggests that childhood experiences in nature stimulate creativity.
In Last Child in the Woods, Louv talks with parents, children, teachers, scientists, religious leaders, child-development researchers, and environmentalists who recognize the threat and offer solutions. Louv shows us an alternative future, one in which parents help their kids experience the natural world more deeplyâand find the joy of family connectedness in the process. - Workman Press."I like to play indoors better 'cause that's where all the electrical outlets are," reports a fourth-grader. Never before in history have children been so plugged inâand so out of touch with the natural world. In this groundbreaking new work, child advocacy expert Richard Louv directly links the lack of nature in the lives of today's wired generationâhe calls it nature deficitâto some of the most disturbing childhood trends, such as rises in obesity, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), and depression.
Some startling facts: By the 1990s the radius around the home where children were allowed to roam on their own had shrunk to a ninth of what it had been in 1970. Today, average eight-year-olds are better able to identify cartoon characters than native species, such as beetles and oak trees, in their own community. The rate at which doctors prescribe antidepressants to children has doubled in the last five years, and recent studies show that too much computer use spells trouble for the developing mind.
Nature-deficit disorder is not a medical condition; it is a description of the human costs of alienation from nature. This alienation damages children and shapes adults, families, and communities. There are solutions, though, and they're right in our own backyards. Last child in the Woods is the first book to bring together cutting-edge research showing that direct exposure to nature is essential for healthy childhood developmentâphysical, emotional, and spiritual. What's more, nature is a potent therapy for depression, obesity, and ADD. Environment-based education dramatically improves standardized test scores and grade point averages and develops skills in problem solving, critical thinking, and decision making. Even creativity is stimulated by childhood experiences in nature.
Yet sending kids outside to play is increasingly difficult. Computers, television, and video games compete for their time, of course, but it's also our fears of traffic, strangers, even virus-carrying mosquitoesâfears the media exploitâthat keep children indoors. Meanwhile, schools assign more and more homework, and there is less and less access to natural areas.
Parents have the power to ensure that their daughter or son will not be the "last child in the woods," and this book is the first step toward that nature-child reunion.
