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	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}last-child-louv.jpg" style="float: left; width: 250px; height: 373px; " />Ask children how they spend their free time and you usually get a list of indoor activities involving bright glowing screens and electronic gizmos.&nbsp; I, like Richard Louv, have been told by children that they cannot be too far from an electric outlet, especially if a video game consule is plugged into it.&nbsp; In his book, <u>Last Child in the Woods</u>, Louv unpacks the ways that these newfound inclinations for indoor play impact our children.&nbsp; What results is a wonderful ode to the outdoors as well as an alarm bell for our nation&rsquo;s children.&nbsp;</p>
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	Louv documents the tendency of the last two generations of children to spend little time outdoors.&nbsp; This is not isolated to one geographic region but is seen across the nation.&nbsp; It is radically different from all preceding generations.&nbsp; In the past, we took it for granted that children spent large amounts of time in natural settings and took in all the benefits that this time bestows, including a heart-felt love for particular places.&nbsp; Since we are shaped by what we love, the natural world has had a profound influence on who we are as human beings.&nbsp; It begs the question: how is a child&rsquo;s heart shaped by indoor spaces, video games, and screens?</p>
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	Louv examines the impact of this &ldquo;nature deficit&rdquo; on our children &ndash; and if truth be told &ndash; on ourselves.&nbsp; He examines the impact on our mental, physical, and spiritual health. &nbsp;In doing the research for the book, Louv looked to a number of disciplines from education and educational psychology to neurology.&nbsp; He sought insight from the fields of environmental therapy, mental health, urban design, parks and recreation, creativity, and playground design. He also explored the relatively new field of ecopsychology.&nbsp; Most importantly, he interviewed children, parents, and teachers.</p>
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	The outcome of his research is an exploration of the term he coined, nature&ndash;deficit disorder, which &ldquo;[describes] the human costs of alienation from nature.&rdquo;&nbsp; One cost is the atrophy of the senses.&nbsp; Direct experiences encompass what we see, feel, taste, hear and smell for ourselves.&nbsp; &ldquo;Without direct experiences, our experience of daily life is impoverished.&rdquo;&nbsp; Louv cites John Dewey&rsquo;s warning about relying on secondary experiences to teach children.&nbsp; Secondary experiences typically rely on only vision and hearing and ask children to learn through vicarious experience.&nbsp; Dewey felt secondary experiences come with the risk of depersonalizing human life.&nbsp; Multisensory experiences in nature, on the other hand, enrich life and help to build &ldquo;the cognitive constructs necessary for sustained intellectual development.&rdquo;&nbsp; Louv warns that nature-deficit disorder leads to &lsquo;cultural autism&rsquo; with atrophied, tunneled senses and feelings of isolation.</p>
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	Another cost is difficulty concentrating.&nbsp; Involvement in nature enhances the ability to pay attention.&nbsp; Louv cites new studies that show the positive effects nature has on children suffering from ADHD.&nbsp; Time spent outdoors calms and improves one&rsquo;s ability to focus.&nbsp; Louv goes on to state that nature improves all children&rsquo;s ability to focus, hones their cognitive abilities, and gives resistance to negative stress.</p>
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	A third cost of nature-deficit disorder is higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses.&nbsp; Louv recalls the urgings of naturalist and professor, Elaine Brooks, who felt strongly that we needed to teach how to &ldquo;use the environmental to recover our wits.&rdquo;&nbsp; As one mental health researcher states, &ldquo;An indoor, sedentary childhood is linked to mental health problems.&rdquo;&nbsp; Louv cites that depression among our nation&rsquo;s children is on the rise.&nbsp; While exclusion from nature can lead to mental health problems, studies show that in many cases time spent in nature is as effective as medications in treating depression.&nbsp; Nature should be considered a preventative as well as a alternative treatment therapy for mental health issues. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
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	Finally, nature-deficit disorder also impacts spiritual health since, as Louv rightly notes, &ldquo;conservation is, at its core, a spiritual act.&rdquo; &nbsp;As Louv points out creation is not ours but God&rsquo;s.&nbsp; We conserve creation for God as well as for those who come after us.&nbsp; Louv makes the connection between how one treats creation and loving one&rsquo;s neighbor: if I love my neighbor, I will not pollute his air, water, or food or diminish creation&rsquo;s ability to give him joy and health.&nbsp; We need to &ldquo;develop leaders who will do battle to save our natural world&rdquo; and &ldquo;take a stand for the greater justice for all people&rdquo; by caring for God&rsquo;s earth. &nbsp;</p>
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	While Louv&rsquo;s book is a thorough analysis of the myriad ways that the outdoors impacts us &ldquo;almost at a cellular level,&rdquo; it is this spiritual piece that affirms faith-based organizations like Au Sable Institute in &ldquo;help[ing] reclaim nature as part of the spiritual development of children.&rdquo;&nbsp; One is reminded of Au Sable Institute&rsquo;s roots.&nbsp; In 1959 nine men had a vision for a junior science summer camp.&nbsp; They saw the power of learning about God in the context of learning about God&rsquo;s world while living in close proximity to creation.&nbsp; And thus, Au Sable Trails Camp for Youth began.&nbsp;</p>
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	This vision continues in Au Sable Institute&rsquo;s environmental education program.&nbsp; Besides our day programs for local schools, Au Sable also provides two and three day programs for students from Christian middle and high schools.&nbsp; Christian students study aspects of creation in the context of their faith and scripture while living surrounded by creation&rsquo;s beauty on Au Sable&rsquo;s campus.&nbsp;</p>
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	The principles of Louv&#39;s book undergird much of Au Sable&#39;s work, and hopefully others will be swayed by how convincingly it is written.&nbsp; If you have children in your life, it is critical that you take opportunities to get them outside.&nbsp; Be intentional.&nbsp; Make a plan.&nbsp; Give your children (or grandchildren) a daily touch point with creation.&nbsp; Childhood is short.&nbsp; Don&rsquo;t put it off.</p>
