“The average American child spends around four to seven minutes a day playing outside”
It’s something that we hear about a lot these days: our children spend so much time indoors, with their eyes glued to their TV, computer, or tablet screens, all while vehicles pound past in the harsh, urban environment outside.
And the statistics don’t indicate this conclusion is entirely wrong; recent research has found that the average American child spends around four to seven minutes a day playing outside, as opposed to more than seven hours a day in front of a screen. It’s understandable that our children might not feel close to nature.
Of course, certain changes in our world – social, cultural, and technological – can make it difficult to avoid contributing to this trend. For great numbers of us, life can seem like a constant source of stress and pressure. We might be very time-poor, and it can be very easy to end up with a situation in which our children do spend a lot of their time simply watching the TV, or tapping away at a device.
It doesn’t help that it can sometimes seem as if there is little else for children and teenagers to do in urban areas. Many of our cities simply aren’t built to inspire and stimulate kids with the wonders of nature.
However, this is just one more reason to look at how you can incorporate elements of nature into your children’s lives. It is partly why we are so inspired to offer outdoor-based trips for teens here at The Road Less Traveled.
Natural environments serve as a crucial resource for our planet
Our natural world is enchanting, but is also life-supporting – and fragile. All manner of often complex and arcane ecosystems hold together life on Earth, and as human beings, we are key custodians of this natural world.
So, allowing your own child or teen to immerse themselves to a greater extent in natural surroundings isn’t merely about giving them a change from the abrasiveness and stress of the city; it is also about helping them to appreciate the beauty and importance of nature to the health and wellbeing of our planet.
What are the benefits of your child having greater contact with nature?
Children and teens getting to experience more of nature has been linked to a number of potential benefits. It is known, for example, that young people are often able to build confidence through contact with nature, in part due to the less structured nature of outdoor play compared to that in urban settings or indoors.
Such a relative lack of structure in the natural environment, versus the urban one, gives youngsters a seemingly infinite variety of ways to interact with that environment. As a result, they can put their creativity, imagination, and decision-making to the test, and build self-reliance and a sense of responsibility.
The opportunities and challenges that the natural world throws up, also allow kids to stimulate themselves in ways quite different to what would be possible in front of a screen at home.
All the while, engagement with nature can also help lower stress and fatigue. How is that true? Well, Attention Restoration Theory holds that urban settings necessitate something called “directed attention”, whereby the brain is forced to filter out distractions – an exhausting process. By contrast, natural settings enable the brain to settle into what is known as “soft fascination”, which is associated with feelings of pleasure, and feels practically effortless for the brain.
The above are all possible advantages of getting your children out of the city and into rural and natural environments more frequently. So, why not browse our programs, before scheduling a call with a director if you see a program that could be the right option for your teen!