The Community We Deserve: How Outdoor Play Develops Stronger Children and a Safer Neighborhood
Richard Louv’s book Last Child in the Woods, introduces a concept called Nature-Deficit Disorder. This disorder “describes the human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses.” Although NDD has some science to back up its definition, it is not considered a disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The idea is still new enough that not enough scientific studies have been done on this concept to make it a clinical disorder, but I believe it will be added soon because of the evidence that is being put in front of us everyday from every new generation. We, as a nation, are continuing to neglect nature in every facet of life, and the consequences of this neglection are starting to rear its ugly head. Fear is telling us how to raise our children, and it is because of this fear that we are making decisions that will damage our health, safety, and community, for generations to come. I believe that outdoor play in children promotes a cohesive community. If we continue to keep our children inside because of fear of what might happen to them, we run the risk of letting fear run our entire lives. We will no longer have a sense of community through trust of our neighbors, and in turn, we will make our streets much more dangerous because no one will look out for each other. I will be making six points as to why it is important for children to spend time outside playing in the elements so that they can build the skills necessary for a healthy lifestyle and sense of community while building up their physical and emotional health.
Children grow at different paces, but children who spend most of their free time indoors are more likely to fall behind those who love to play outdoors in maturity and cognitive abilities. Outdoor free play helps children use all their senses. According to Robin Moore, “multisensory experience in nature help to build the cognitive constructs necessary for sustained intellectual development.” When children go outside to play on a mound of dirt, they use their imagination to make a world that is of their choosing. They run, jump, climb trees, smell the flowers, splash around in creeks, use sticks as canes or swords and do all the other things that kids love to do and don’t realize help them build their skills for later in life. Louv believes that “Children need nature for the healthy development of their senses, and therefore, for learning and creativity”. When we play like this, we end up learning how to problem solve, make friends, and learn how to make something out of nothing. But it is not just play that helps build future life skills. In an article for Parents.com, Heather McTeer Toney advises parents to let your kids play in the dirt. “Find a small space and let them plant something, preferably something edible. Growing food and herbs are a great way to teach sustainability and even save a few dollars at the grocery store”. When children learn how to grow plants like vegetables, they are learning how important of a roll nature will play in our lives all while using all five senses in the process. When you can smell, touch, see, hear, and taste your environment, it all becomes very real, and apart of your life and memories.
Since playing outdoors uses all your senses, children are made more aware of their surroundings. Too often we go through life with our heads down stuck in our phones. We become less aware of what is around us, opening ourselves up to fall prey to someone who wishes to do us harm. When we are aware of our surroundings, we can feel safer and learn a bit of appreciation for the world around us. We can use the world around us to our advantage when we are aware of what we could use if a situation arises that may be out of our control. NCSU Professor Robert Moore believes that “individual children test themselves by interacting with their environment, activating their potential, and reconstructing human culture.” Play with children isn’t always just play. They act out scenarios where there is possibility of danger and then act out how to get out of it. They are, in a sense, training themselves how to problem solve situations that could be potentially dangerous. It is important that we don’t instill too much fear in our younger generations. Janet Fout would teach her daughter that “when we were outdoors, rather than telling her to ‘be careful,’ I encouraged her to ‘pay attention’ — which doesn’t instill fear but works against fear.” If children are afraid, they tend to break down and hide, but if we teach our kids to look and listen to their surroundings so they are ready for anything that may arise, they can feel prepared and ready to take on whatever challenges present themselves.
Having a healthy fear for your child’s safety is still important as a parent. While it is essential to let your child experience nature and have unorganized free play, it is still ok, and sometimes needed, to supervise your children in the process. Bigger cities may not offer very much in ways of the natural world, so parks and open fields may serve as a space where children can get their play in. For situations like this, parents may want to be there to supervise their children’s play, and that could be a very good thing to help build a strong community. While the children are playing, adults can interact with each other and build bonds that probably wouldn’t have happened if their kids were not playing together. It is these bonds that help make our communities safer by realizing who is a neighbor and who else may be a threat. These are skills than can be learned by children while playing outside with friends. Many kids these days want to spend most of their time indoors playing video games because our modern world is controlled by electronics. Kids still feel that they are playing with friends, but they are not building face to face relationships that can help develop proper interactions with people in society. In Louv’s book Last Child in the Woods, he expresses that “parents or other adults need to be there for their kids, to limit the time they play video games or watch TV, to take them to the library or on long walks in nature, to take them fishing — to help them detach from electronics long enough for their imagination to kick in.” If parents are not actively interested in their child’s development, they may fall behind in some respects that will be detrimental to their interactions with people throughout their lives.
The social relationships that children have are essential for the growth and development for major cognitive attributes that will shape who your children will become. Having these relationships can help your child build self-confidence that is necessary to build friendships throughout life. A Swedish study shows that “children and parents who live in places that allow for outdoor access have twice as many friends as those who have restricted outdoor access due to traffic”. Having so many friends creates reasons to go outside and play which reinforces their cognitive emotional social skills. Playing outside with a group of friends is much safer than playing by yourself as well. There is a saying that there is safety in numbers, and when you have a group of people looking out for you and your wellbeing, you are naturally in a safer situation. According to the Child-Encyclopedia, “a recent qualitative study of children’s active travel to school found participants engaged in playful experiences including careful risk-taking, trying new routes, changing their journeys in increments and experimenting with new activities. These children were also found to show increased levels of social engagement and responsibilities such as looking out for peers and siblings.” We can feel safer for our children when they are off with a group of friends. Sure, they may do things that we consider risky, but that is part of being a child and learning how to take risks while still being at least moderately safe. If we don’t allow children to explore and take these risks on their own, then they will never be able to prepare themselves for risks that will need to be taken in the future. Life can be tough, and sheltering the children to increase their safety at the time will only ill prepare them for the troubles that life will inevitably come at them in the future.
Many parents believe that it is up to them to keep their children safe by keeping them inside. This may be true when they are young, but your children are going to be out in the world whether you like it or not. Instead of keeping children sheltered from harm, teach them how to know who is safe and who is a potential threat to their safety. Richard Louv said, “don’t just tell your kids about evil, teach them about good — teach them to seek out adults who can help them when they feel threatened”. This is done by building a sense of community. If children are outside meeting their neighbors, they know who should be in their neighborhood and who they could come to if they need help. When we shelter our children out of fear, we are teaching our children to fear the world, and they will never know who they can turn to if they ever feel threatened. Clinical Psychologist, Lynn Henderson, said that “as more parents keep their children inside the house or under rigid control, youngsters will be deprived of chances to become self-confident and discerning, to interact with neighbors, or to learn how to build real community — which is one defense against sociopaths”. When you build a sense of community with your neighbors, everyone will be aware of who should be in the neighborhood and who should not. The people within a community are the ones that keep a community safe through outreach and neighborhood watches. If we all keep to ourselves and worry only about our own families, we are putting our family in danger because situations that could be preventable when the community is aware will be allowed to happen with nobody watching out for each other.
One of the biggest reasons to promote outdoor play for children is to prevent physical and mental health concerns. Childhood obesity is increasing at an alarming rate. With playtime for children mostly being held indoors, parents turn to organized sports to keep their kids active. While this is a good option for physical activity, the organized sport does not allow for the free play that help build the cognitive emotions children need to develop for a healthy lifestyle, not just physically, but mentally. An article in sciencedirect.com explains that “during outdoor play, children should have the opportunity to experiment moments of failure and success, learning by trial and error. If we try to prevent all risky situations, children will not know how to deal with unpredictable environments and will lack the necessary confidence to overcome challenges in an autonomous way.” Problems will develop for children who lack confidence, including depression. Other problems may arise as well. With everything being available to us at the push of a button, patience in children is becoming nearly nonexistent. Instant gratification can lead to some serious problems with paying attention. New studies suggest that “nature may reduce the symptoms of ADHD, and that it can improve all children’s cognitive abilities and resistance to negative stresses and depression.” There is much more to our children’s health than just their physical condition, and we are learning that outdoor play can result in curing many things that plague our communities today. In an article by sciencenewsforstudents.org, psychologist Lise Van Susteren noted that “’they look at the generation ahead of them that could have taken action and didn’t’. This can trigger feelings of anger, grief, resentment, fear, frustration and being overwhelmed. Not every young person will feel these emotions. But for many, the feelings can get in the way of their general well-being. Young people ‘have to let those feelings out’”. Children’s physical health may be in danger by staying inside for more reasons than just obesity as well. Richard Louv said that “we may fear the outdoors, but kids may generally face more dangers in their own home. The EPA now warns us that indoor air pollution is the nation’s number one environmental threat to health — and it’s from two to ten times worse than outdoor air pollution.” We can see that while parents believe keeping their children inside is safer for their kids, it could potentially be more dangerous in implementation.
Parents have the best intentions when they try to keep their children safer by keeping them indoors, but if we allow for the outdoor play to be beneficial and a learning experience, children will be more apt to a safer and healthier life. I have outlined six reasons why outdoor play for children promotes a cohesive community that will make for a stronger and safer neighborhood and world. When children play outside; they learn to use all of their senses, they become more aware of their surroundings, it forces parents to supervise their children and build community relationships in the process, it will help children build important social relationships and friendships within their community, it helps children recognize who is safe and who is a threat, and it helps build stronger physical and mental health. All these things add up to an overall better lifestyle that will bring families and neighborhoods together, something that is missing from our communities today. By trying to keep our kids safe, we are doing the exact opposite. We are not allowing our youngest generations to see the world for what it is, and because of that, younger generations will never learn how to appreciate nature and what it brings to our lives. The more disconnected with nature we become, they less we will begin to care for it, and the more dangerous everyday life will become. Go outside, play with your kids, and help to build a community in your own neighborhood so that you can begin to feel better about letter your child experience nature to its fullest. It may not just save your child’s life, it may end up saving the world.
