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Potential Benefits From Interacting With Nature: A Look At Outdoor Education For Children, Katie Webster

Psychology and Child Development

With the increase of a fast paced lifestyle and more technology centered activities, children are spending an increased amount of time indoors. A decreased interaction with the natural environment is alarming to many researchers, including Richard Louv who has defined this lack of interaction as Nature Deficit Disorder, a disorder that may result in a diminished use of the senses, increased amount of attention difficulties and higher rates of physical and emotional illness. By engaging with nature, children will have the potential of concentrating and performing better within the classroom, to be more creative, are more cognitively and intellectually developed …