Post: Media Savvy Kids And Nature Deficit Disorder
Media Savvy Kids And Nature Deficit Disorder
Young kids may be getting media savvy earlier, but many have never seen a campfire or been on a hiking trail, and wouldn’t know a wilderness experience if it bit ‘em on the backside.
In fact, a British study akin to the "Ronald McDonald vs. the President" face recognition phenom where kids could name the clown but not the nation’s leader found that 8-year-olds could identify Pokémon characters far more easily than they could name “otter, beetle, and oak tree.”
Even if you get them in the wilderness, some truly don’t know how to deal. Research is bearing this out…
Last Child in the Woods author Richard Louv talks of kids’ “nature deficit disorder” and I’m inclined to hike into his camp with full-footed surety.
It’s amazed me repeatedly, whether teaching wildlife to brownie troops or asking first graders to sit still and hush in a grass field for only two minutes to observe the world around them coming alive.
They just can’t do it. They squirm and shift from boredom. They interrupt the silence. Want immediate gratification. Start whining, “I don’t see anything” as you shush them to point out the ant, the water droplet on the blade of grass, the breeze blowing the ladybug’s wings…
Read the rest of Amy's entry at Shaping Youth, where it first appeared.
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Date: November 6, 2006
This is a great reminder. I knew I was in trouble with my own 3-year-old daughter when she kept calling our campsite "the Web site." Sigh.