Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder | 
 enlarge | Author: Richard Louv
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  76 reviews
Sales Rank: 14119
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.4
ISBN: 1565123913
Dewey Decimal Number: 155.418
EAN: 9781565123915
ASIN: 1565123913
Publication Date: April 15, 2005
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Product Description
"I like to play indoors better 'cause that's where all the electrical outlets are," reports a fourth-grader. Never before in history have children been so plugged in—and so out of touch with the natural world. In this groundbreaking new work, child advocacy expert Richard Louv directly links the lack of nature in the lives of today's wired generation—he calls it nature deficit—to some of the most disturbing childhood trends, such as rises in obesity, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), and depression.
Some startling facts: By the 1990s the radius around the home where children were allowed to roam on their own had shrunk to a ninth of what it had been in 1970. Today, aerage eight-year-olds are better able to identify cartoon characters than native species, such as beetles and oak trees, in their own community. The rate at which doctors prescribe antidepressants to children has doubled in the last five years, and recent studies show that too much computer use spells trouble for the developing mind.
Nature-deficit disorder is not a medical condition; it is a description of the human costs of alienation from nature. This alienation damages children and shapes adults, families, and communities. There are solutions, though, and they're right in our own backyards. Last child in the Woods is the first book to bring together cutting-edge research showing that direct exposure to nature is essential for healthy childhood development—physical, emotional, and spiritual. What's more, nature is a potent therapy for depression, obesity, and ADD. Environment-based education dramatically improves standarized test scores and grade point averages and develops skills in problem solving, critical thinking, and decision making. Even creativity is stimulated by childhood experiences in nature.
Yet sending kids outside to play is increasingly difficult. Computers, television, and video games compete for their time, of course, but it's also our fears of traffic, strangers, even virus-carrying mosquitos—fears the media exploit—that keep children indoors. Meanwhile, schools assign more and more homework, and there is less and less access to natural areas.
Parents have the power to ensure that their daughter or son will not be the "last child in the woods," and this book is the first step toward that nature-child reunion.
Book Description
“I like to play indoors better ’cause that’s where all the electrical outlets are,” reports a fourth grader. But it’s not only computers, television, and video games that are keeping kids inside. It’s also their parents’ fears of traffic, strangers, Lyme disease, and West Nile virus; their schools’ emphasis on more and more homework; their structured schedules; and their lack of access to natural areas. Local governments, neighborhood associations, and even organizations devoted to the outdoors are placing legal and regulatory constraints on many wild spaces, sometimes making natural play a crime.
As children’s connections to nature diminish and the social, psychological, and spiritual implications become apparent, new research shows that nature can offer powerful therapy for such maladies as depression, obesity, and attentiondeficit disorder. Environment-based education dramatically improves standardized test scores and grade-point averages and develops skills in problem solving, critical thinking, and decision making. Anecdotal evidence strongly suggests that childhood experiences in nature stimulate creativity.
In Last Child in the Woods, Louv talks with parents, children, teachers, scientists, religious leaders, child-development researchers, and environmentalists who recognize the threat and offer solutions. Louv shows us an alternative future, one in which parents help their kids experience the natural world more deeply—and find the joy of family connectedness in the process.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 71 more reviews...
 Insightful, important book July 11, 2008
I whole-heartedly recommend this important book. Richard Louv's book sparked a movement that had been simmering under the surface for some time -- with the rapid growth of technology in recent years, our children are spending less and less time outside.
I work with Green Hour, a campaign of the National Wildlife Federation, that aims to inspire parents to encourage their kids to turn off the computer, IPod and TV and GET OUTSIDE! Check out www.greenhour.org to find the tools you need as a parent to help fight nature deficit disorder.
Childhood obesity, ADHD, and basic developmental problems have been associated to this broken link with the outdoors.
The new edition is great -- there are ideas in the back for getting kids outdoors...
Anne Keisman
Green Hour
 Excellent Book. . . Now Go Outside! July 7, 2008
Louv claims that children spend less and less time outdoors because of parental fears, electronic toys and a variety of other reasons. He explains what the implications are for children and adults: attention problems, disconnectedness with the world, lower productivity. Louv makes the case for why and how parents, teachers and others should help children connect with nature. I really liked the book overall, although I felt like some of the chapters could have been more concise. The second addition has an appendix with a concise practical list of things parents can do.
Inspiring and enlightening June 4, 2008
From the first chapter, this book has had a tangible impact on my life. I grew up in a rural area but now live in NYC and had sensed, but did not fully realize how important being in nature is for my physical, spiritual and mental health. This book has re-opened my senses to the truth that I am a part of nature and even though I live in a city, I have the obligation to care for the nature around me. I also work with children and am newly inspired to incorporate nature into all aspects of education.
The only critique I have is that at times it feels like Louv is repetitive, and the directives about what can be done are sometimes broad, but the overall effect has been to inspire me to get out and DO something about the problem.
it works May 31, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
My wife and I played in the woods; we taught our kids to play in the woods; one is an environmental educator; one is an environmental biologist.
Persuasive and impassioned, though with some evidentiary gaps May 14, 2008
Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods
This book makes a convincing case that many of our children are suffering from a deficit of nature in their lives. He connects this nature deficit to a variety of modern plagues, including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, stress, depression, anxiety disorders, and childhood obesity. The evidence tends to be more anecdotal than systematic or experimental, but the cumulation of such evidence becomes persuasive.
He attributes this deficit to many causes, including a loss of public spaces, the testing climate in public schools reducing recesses, the growth of organized youth activities at the expense of just messing around in vacant lots, parents' fears for safety, fears of litigation making cities reduce parks and playgrounds, electronic games and television, and various other ills. The causal links here are even more speculative but again, the story coheres well from an accumulation of circumstantial evidence.
Louv's solutions seem to address symptoms, not underlying causes. Many are wishful thinking - - with so many social and economic pressures taking our kids away from nature, we need a significant restructuring to get them back. I'm not sure how to do this, but this important book certainly does a good job raising the issues.
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