Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder
By Richard Louv
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill 2005
$24.95

Every parent has likely noticed the powerful effect of nature on children: an anxious child will relax and forget her worries as she rolls in the grass; sibling arguments -- fought so bitterly in the car -- quickly dissipate on a windy beach; and the darkest mood of a teenager can be washed away by a plunge in the lake.

In his important new book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, Richard Louv analyzes and explains the crucial role nature plays in the lives of children. Nature is not just a beautiful backdrop to life. As Louv makes clear, the outdoors is as essential to a child's health and well being as good nutrition and plenty of sleep.

Louv presents a compelling argument that children, and the rest of us for that matter, require regular contact with nature to maintain physical and emotional health. He also shows how the spread of modern technological culture -- with its sterility, violence, and hyper-wiring -- can erode that relationship. Last Child in the Woods is a plea to parents, educators, and government officials to restore and protect this elemental relationship -- before it's too late.

Louv coined the term "nature-deficit disorder" to describe the consequences of separating children from the natural world. In a recent interview in Salon, he expanded on the term and its significance: "Families too can show the symptoms -- increased feelings of stress, trouble paying attention, feelings of not being rooted in the world. So can communities, so can whole cities. Really, what I'm talking about is a disorder of society -- and children are victimized by it."

In Last Child in the Woods, Louv offers many telling -- and often grim -- statistics. One out of every five American children is clinically obese -- four times the level recorded in the late 1960s.* Not coincidentally, children age 6 to 11 spend approximately 30 hours a week engaged in "screen time " -- that is, watching TV or playing computer and video games.**

Louv argues that modern culture takes an emotional as well as physical toll on children. He cites a 2003 study showing that rates of antidepressants prescribed for children doubled in five years. (A large percentage of those children were in preschool.) Louv also cites recent reports that establish a direct connection between access to the natural world and psychological well-being.

Many parents of hyperactive children notice the calming effect nature has on their sons and daughters. Recent research supports these observations. Louv cites several studies showing that contact with nature can improve a child's concentration. One study found that even a view of greenery through a window reduced attention-deficit symptoms.

Louv doesn't urge parents to immediately pack their children off for a trek in Nepal or the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Establishing a relationship with nature requires nothing more than access to a vacant lot or a small patch of woods. You can nourish your child's spirit by giving him opportunities to garden, care for animals, explore tidepools, or build a fort in the woods. As Louv points out, a child uses all the senses when he's out in nature. Also, the experience is direct, a stark contrast to the indirect, passive experience of sitting in front of a TV or computer.

This book is clearly a labor of love for the author. He spent 10 years traveling around the country, talking to parents and children about their relationship with their natural environment. The book is scrupulously researched and full of summaries of the latest research on everything from the demise of the family farm to educational trends around the world.

Louv also laces the book with characters he met in his travels. There is the inner-city Latino teen who is astonished by the natural world he sees for the first time through a city youth program. There is the principal who restored the canyon behind his elementary school to give students hands-on experience with science. There are parents who recall their own early adventures in nature with fondness, but are too afraid for their children's' safety to let them leave the back yard. Louv also interviews kids, some of whom are eloquent about their attachment to their local forests and meadows, and others who exist in a world of controlled climates and electronic devices. (One fourth-grade boy tells Louv, "I like to play indoors better, 'cause that's where all the electrical outlets are.")

It's lamentable that our frenetic modern culture doesn't give people time to read the very books that could help them understand their experience. In this case, readers need extra patience as well. This book is valuable and compelling, but it's also dense and long-winded. Louv's writing would have benefited from a closer edit; he included so many facts and studies and themes that the book has a heavy, plodding feeling. Still, it's well worth the effort.

Last Child in the Woods amounts to a warning to society to take action before it's too late. Nature-deficit disorder threatens the well-being of our entire planet. If our children and grandchildren become alienated from nature, they are unlikely to protect it. Louv points out that environmentalism is a value that springs from an early and profound childhood experience in nature. Children raised on video games, trips to the shopping mall, and vacations in Disneyland are unlikely to become defenders of the natural world. When nature itself suffers a deficit, we'll all be in trouble.

*According to the Centers for Disease Control, the most recent statistics show that 16 percent of children are obese -- a number that has leveled off since 2003. -- Editor

**The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that children now spend more than five hours a day -- or 40 percent of their waking hours -- watching TV, playing video games, or sitting in front of a computer. -- Editor

-- Connie Matthiessen is a former staff writer for the Center for Investigative Reporting and a regular contributor to Consumer Health Interactive. She has written health and medical stories for Health, Parenting, Time Inc. Health, and many other publications.

First published December 20, 2005
Last updated September 21, 2008
Copyright © 2005 Consumer Health Interactive

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