The Role of Play & Nature in a Child’s Life
Summer’s on its way. Here in middle TN, that last school bell is about to ring for the year. Back in the childhoods of the 70’s & 80’s, that meant long lazy days spent outside, dreaming up games, building forts, riding horses & bikes, or reading a book in the limbs of the perfect tree.
For many kids today, children of parents who spent THEIR childhoods in the 90’s and 2000’s, the landscape is more urban, their time way more scheduled with camps, sports, and other activities, and the time/freedom to wander outside has become much more limited.
Adults AND children/teens report greater anxiety, depression, and health issues than ever before. We can blame a variety of things—being plugged in & more isolated, over-parenting, less trust in faith-based and other institutions. If there were a simple solution—or salve—for that (besides that second glass of wine or the Netflix Numb), would we take it? Would it be worth trying?
On this episode we were joined by Jamie Langley, who’s been a practicing child, family and play therapist here in Tennessee for 30 years. She is also an adjunct professor in the MTSU Social Work department. Co-founder and President of the TN branch of the Association for Play Therapy, Jamie is a charter member of the Children & Nature Network.
Jamie primarily specializes in working with children and their families who have undergone trauma, loss, divorce and other adverse experiences, integrating creativity and nature as part of healing practice whenever possible. She’s got a book coming out (2022) called Nature-Based Play and Expressive Therapies with Dr. Janet Courtney. Her website is jamielynnlangley.com
We’re really tackling TWO subjects: (1) the importance of PLAY and (2) the importance of being OUTSIDE
The definitive book (2005) on the latter is Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv. Louv coined the phrase Nature Deficit Disorder to describe what effect disconnecting from nature has on kids (& all of us).
Pediatricians at a children’s hospital in Oakland, CA have been so concerned about this, they actually write prescriptions for nature. They ask parents: “do they have access to outdoors and green spaces?” A pediatrician friend of ours reports that 90% of what he treats in his practice these days is “from the neck up,” in both kids and their parents.
This is even here in middle TN—the South—which is still quite rural outside the major metro areas. If you’re living on the east or west coast, in a concrete jungle, I can understand… but it’s the same in suburbia. Parents are more afraid to send their kids outside because of perceived dangers and risks.
How things have changed. Last generation intimately connected to land/water is boomers (1946-1964). No more frontier, family farms have died out. For the current generation of kids & their parents, for the most part:
- Food is shrink-wrapped or maybe lab-produced (vs Renee & chicken butchering)
- No biological absolutes (can clone, create chimeras, change genetics, combine machines with living things…what is life?)
- Relationship with animals is distant except for pets (although they’re all for animal rights)
- Rise in urban areas
Spending time in the woods—what the Japanese call forest bathing—is strongly linked to lower blood pressure, heart rate, and stress hormones AND decreased anxiety, depression, and fatigue. After 2 two-hour walks in the woods, cortisol and adrenaline significantly decrease—with effects lasting at least 7 days.
Water in motion produces abundant negative ions, bringing more energy and vitality. Negative ions are odorless, tasteless, and invisible molecules that we inhale in abundance in certain environments such as the ocean but also mountains, and waterfalls.
The body is a biological light receptor. Releases serotonin, the “happy hormone.” Routine exposure to sunlight reduces heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure and blood sugar while increasing energy, strength, endurance, stress tolerance. Natural environments make us more creative & empathetic and more apt to engage with each other.
Connection to the greater universe is also a connection to its Maker. It makes us realize our place, both important & small. Col 1:16 (all creation made for God’s glory); Everything declares His praise. Isaiah 55:12—You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
THE AVERAGE AMERICAN CHILD SPENDS JUST 4-7 MINUTES IN UNSTRUCTURED OUTDOOR PLAY EACH DAY AND MORE THAN 7 HOURS EACH DAY IN FRONT OF A SCREEN. The following poignant video from Nature Valley emphasizes this point.
When Jamie sees families who’ve had trauma, divorce, chaos….she talks to them about play & nature, suggests exchanging “screen time for green time.” For people who just wouldn’t describe themselves as “outdoorsy,” she suggests starting with 10 minutes a day. Work up from there. In families where both parents work and the family is on-the-go with after school scheduled events, even 10 minutes can seem like a stretch at first. Night time is a great time, too. If your kids aren’t going to bed well or if the baby is fussy, try some cuddle time outside on the patio, looking up at the stars.
It can be a cycle. Less time outside means higher stress and more anxiety, which leads to less sleep and unregulated biorhythms. Less sleep contributes to poor behavior and performance, which ratchets up the stress in the home. Issues of focus, behavior, anxiety can be greatly improved by spending time outside. Count 10 things you hear. Count 10 things you see. What are 10 things you smell? Engaging the senses or using a magnifying glass, telescope, binoculars or microscope improves focus and tunes you in to the world.
120 min or more in nature/week = more likely to report good health & well-being. Two hours in the park = the new 10,000 steps!
Importance of PLAY
Most parents probably think they’ve got this covered, right? All my kids do is play. I can’t get them to do any chores, etc… but if you charted a typical day—especially for school-aged kids—it would include relatively little non-screen play/day.
Play is a child’s first language. It’s the way children express what’s going on inside them. While adults may say “I’ve had a stressful day at work,” and talk all about it, a child may build a tower and destroy it with loud crashes. Just watching the way a child plays outwardly can tell you a lot about what they’re processing inwardly.
Play is important, but the WAY you play is also significant. Jamie incorporates and encourages a lot of “FREE” PLAY, which is unstructured and unsupervised, without rules, often risky or messy. Giving children only 4 random household objects to play with instead of 16 actually encourages MORE creativity and imaginative play. Again and again, children are overwhelmed by too many options and too much choice. Jamie suggests parents move away from the helicopter mode of parenting to what she calls the “hummingbird” mode, where parents check in now and then, coming and going and letting children work things out on their own.
How much free play is needed? (from Angela Hanscom, Balanced & Barefoot)
Toddlers/Preschoolers (ages 1-5) 5-8 hrs/daily, active free play, preferably outdoors
Grade school (ages 5-13) At least 4-5 hrs physical activity and outdoor play daily
Adolescents (ages 13-18) could benefit from 3-4 hours of physical activity/day (Ben’s antsiness)
Compare x-ray of a typical preschool child’s hand and typical 7-yr old’s hand. Preschooler isn’t able to write yet b/c their hands are still developing and not fully formed. How to support this? Play. Playdough, coloring, cutting, gluing, outdoors, digging, sensory play, beading, puzzles…all are developmental help for skills.
Those are motor skills….When it comes to creativity, imagination, problem solving, risk taking, play and play-in-nature significantly affect these as well. BOREDOM is not a bad word!
- Physical. Climb, chase, tumble. That’s how they develop strong bodies & graceful movement.
- They play in risky ways. That’s how they learn to manage fear & develop courage.
- They play with language. That’s how they become competent with language.
- They play with implicit or explicit rules; that’s how they learn to follow rules.
- They play imaginative games; that’s how they learn to think hypothetically & creatively.
- They play with logic; that’s how they become logical; They play at building; that’s how they learn to build.
- They play with the tools of their culture; that’s how they become skilled at using tools.
- They play socially. That’s how they learn to negotiate, compromise, and get along.
Play isn’t recess from education; IT IS education. Children learn far more in play & with more joy, than they learn in a classroom. (from Peter Gray, Mother Nature’s Pedagogy)
@1000hoursoutside….great resource with activities , including these books listed below:
Smart Moves, Hannaford
The Power of Play, Elkind
The Nature Fix, Williams
There’s No Such Thing as Bad Weather, McGurk
SImplicity Parenting, Payne
Free to Learn, Gray
Learning All the Time, Holt
Dirt is Good, Gilbert
Bringing Nature Home, Tellamy
How to Raise a Wild Child, Sampson
The Healing Sun, Hobday
Your Brain on Nature, Selhub
Glow Kids, Kardaras
The Hurried Child, Elkind
The Hundred Languages of Children, Edwards
Home Education, Mason
The Hidden Half of Nature, Montgomery
Go outside. Watch the clouds. Watch the birds. Experiment with your senses. (middle TN in the spring can be brutal….but what can you smell? What can you hear?) Be in fresh air under the trees and away from cars—on a regular basis. Peloton doesn’t count.
One fabulous reference is from the Backwoods Mama blog, where she lists TONS of great books and resources full of tips and suggestions for getting kids outside.