Tell Your Kids to Get Out

By Sarah Wilson

For many years, summer meant days outdoors for American children. Parents turned their kids loose after breakfast and had a hard time calling them in again at night fall. Children roved the streets and parks of our nation by day and came home sweaty and dirty, with skinned knees and bug bites, looking forward to the next day’s outdoor adventures.

While youngsters can still be seen peddling their training wheeled bikes along the streets and playing catch in the front lawn, many children are leading increasingly sedentary lifestyles, spending more of their free time indoors watching TV and playing video games. Meanwhile, health ailments like childhood obesity, asthma, and Attention Deficit Disorder seem to be on the rise. Even more disturbing is the fact that the current generation of children may be the first generation at risk of having a shorter lifespan than their parents.

What if there was a simple, cost effective, and sustainable way of treating children suffering from these conditions? Well there may be, and the solution might even be fun for kids: playing outside. A growing body of evidence suggests that outdoor recreation may be a viable treatment for a variety of ailments plaguing our nation’s children. Physical activity reduces blood pressure in young children, helps treat type-2 diabetes in the young, and may help combat the prevalence of childhood obesity. There is also evidence to suggest contact with nature helps lower levels of stress in children and can mitigate attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Exposure to areas with trees may even improve childhood asthma symptoms. In May, the journal Current Problems in Pediatric and Adolescent Health Care featured the article “Using Nature and Outdoor Activity to Improve Children’s Health,” which summarized the latest research about the effects of nature on children’s health and shared information about the Children and Nature Initiative of the National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF).

NEEF is determined to get our kids back outdoors and they’re partnering with pediatricians for The Children and Nature Initiative to make that happen. The idea behind the Initiative is to educate pediatric health care providers about prescribing outdoor activities to children. Connecting these health care professionals to local nature sites so they can refer families to safe and easily accessible outdoor areas is also an important part of the program. It hasn’t always been easy for minority and low income children who are more likely to grow up in urban settings with fewer open spaces to play outside, so the program hopes to provide parents with ideas of places to take their kids. NEEF is also partnering with Fish and Wildlife Service and The Audubon Society to provide accessible Nature Programs. In addition to improving children’s health, the Initiative hopes to help reconnect children with the natural world, providing them with youthful experiences that will make them more likely to become long term environmental stewards.

 

According to Leyla McCurdy, senior director of NEEF’s Health and Environment program, the initiative was first conceived in 2008 when NEEF was selected to present at the National Forum on Children and Education. She says their presentation was unique in that it focused on engaging pediatricians, a trusted group with a great deal of credibility. Assembling scientific information to support the theory that outdoor recreation could improve children’s health was a priority. NEEF found plenty of literature that backed up their hypotheses and created a fact sheet to engage health care professionals. “Pediatrician’s are not going to write a prescription unless the science is in front of them,” McCurdy said.

 

After doing the research, NEEF worked to develop tools health care providers can use to encourage their patients to put the treatment into action. A patient brochure suggests fun things parents and kids can do together outside. There is also a special prescription pad physicians can use to prescribe outdoor activities to children. McCurdy says there will be an incentive program for children who are prescribed outdoor activity by their pediatricians. They can take their prescription with them to the park and get small prizes for coming, with a slightly better prize with each new visit.

The Children in Nature Initiative trains health professionals to become “Nature Champions.” These Champions then have two years to train 30 other people. There was a pilot training to create the first nature champions in New York’s Prospect Park last month. The training features a presentation that lays out information about the benefits of being outdoors and discusses studies that show improved health in areas such as obesity, diabetes, asthma, and attention deficit disorder. McCurdy said that at the beginning of the training, 65 percent of the attendees believed outdoor recreation could do a lot for children’s health. After the training, which includes statistics and information supporting the argument, 95 percent of them were convinced. “The enthusiasm was amazing,” she said, noting that the workshop attendees were all very excited about implementing the nature prescription in their own communities. Some of them have already started training other health professionals.

Dr. Noreen Mian, a pediatrician with Long Island College Hospital, attended the training after the chairperson of pediatrics at her hospital informed her about it. “It sounded really interesting to me. I wanted to hear more about the effects that nature can have on the physical and mental health of our patients,” Dr. Mian said. She hasn’t prescribed outdoor recreation to any children yet since the prescription pads nature champions will be provided with were still being produced according to McCurdy. However, Dr. Mian has discussed the importance of spending time outdoors with her patients and their parents. She hasn’t had follow-up visits with the patients she discussed the idea with yet, “But parents seem to be very inclined to get outside with their kids at least for a little while everyday—especially when you tell them of the health and mental health benefits.” Dr. Mian has been quick to spread the word. “I have given a similar presentation to the workshop that I attended. My audience was a group of about 10 pediatric residents and medical students” she said, noting “They seemed interested and curious to learn more and see the outcome of prescribing nature to their patients.

There is a second training session for medical professionals coming up in September in Shepherdstown, WV. McCurdy said she would eventual like to see this develop into a nationwide program, with trainings across the country in urban and rural areas. More information on the research showing the effects of outdoor recreation on children’s health and the details of the program can be found at http://www.neefusa.org/health/children_nature.htm. There’s no better time than summer to experience the benefits of outdoor recreation first hand by heading to a natural place for a little outside family time.

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