Children and Nature Network

C&NN Leadership Writing Series
Volume One: Number 1
Shared Nature Experience

as a Pathway to
Strong Family Bonds
PHOTO: mark j. humpert

Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D.
Recent years have seen a growing movement to reconnect children and nature—to get children of all ages off the couch,
away from their computers, and out the door to move, play, explore, enjoy, and learn outside. Fueled by increasing concern
about the potential effects on children of a sedentary life style, too much screen time, and too little active, unstructured play,
parents, educators, health care professionals, and policy-makers have come together in communities across the country
and around the world to generate ways to introduce children to the joys of the outdoors and to ensure that green spaces are
created and/or preserved so that all children have access to nature. Conservation leaders, naturalists and environmental
educators have embraced (and in many cases led) this movement, building on a widely-shared belief that people take care
of what they know and love firsthand; thus, helping children learn to love nature will lead them to be good stewards of the
environment when they grow up (a belief supported by emerging research).
Although many individuals and organizations have worked for decades to engage children in nature experience, in 2005
journalist Richard Louv, in his popular book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder,
inspired a much broader and varied group of stakeholders to action. Then, with a handful of like-minded colleagues from
different disciplines (author of this paper included), Louv spearheaded the creation of the Children & Nature Network
(C&NN), www.childrenandnature.org, a non-profit designed to encourage, support and inform individuals and organizations
working to extend and enhance children’s experience in the natural world.
Even as the children and nature movement has gained momentum, with parents sometimes leading the charge (see, for
example, the grassroots Family Nature Clubs featured on the C&NN website), many parents say they feel too squeezed.
They long for more quality time together as a family, and they know that is important for their children’s health and
development. But their jobs, children’s activity schedules, and the seductive power of technology (for both kids and parents,
who often are in separate rooms in front of their separate screens) make family time an elusive vision. Hearing now that
they also need to make sure their kids have time to play and explore outside—on top of all the other demands on their
time—can feel, as one mom said recently, like, “One more ‘ought to’ that I end up feeling stressed and guilty about.”

But, what if that “one more ‘ought to’” actually could help parents achieve the important goal of increasing family time
and building closer, stronger connections with their children? And what if that “one more thing” also could alleviate some
of the stress both parents and kids experience in their often-hurried lives? That is the premise of this paper—that by
following a prescription for more nature experience together, families will discover a win/win situation in which both
children and adults benefit as individuals, even as they are strengthening those important family bonds that all children
(and adults) need.
Granted, the impact of shared nature experience on family relationships does not appear to be something researchers
have studied directly. But, as described in the next few pages, other related areas of research provide some evidence that
can begin to build a case for shared nature experience as a promising avenue for building strong family bonds. Bolstered
by enthusiastic testimonials from a family who has experienced firsthand that special kind of togetherness (OK—not just
a family, but my own family), the idea of a link between shared nature experience and family connectedness seems to be
worthy of systematic study—along with family dinners, parental involvement in school and other similar variables that
researchers have shown to be important assets for families and for children’s health and success.
Shared Nature Experience as a Pathway to Strong Family Bonds

© Children & Nature Network | www.childrenandnature.org 2
Parent-Infant Attachment:
A Firm Foundation for Lifelong Connections
Since the 1960s, child development research has yielded a wealth of information about the importance of the quality of
parent-infant attachment as a powerful influence on a child’s lifelong development. Building gradually and slowly over
the first year of a child’s life, parent-infant attachment is a child’s first close relationship and, to a large extent, a model for
all relationships that follow. Although babies almost always become attached to their primary caregiver(s)—mom, dad
or whomever is with the baby over time—those attachments vary, with some (about 70% in the U.S.) being “secure”
attachments and about 30% being “insecure” (also referred to as “anxious,” with different subtypes depending to a large
extent on the particular kind of care the child has received from that parent).
Longitudinal, observational research using carefully standardized measures of the quality of attachment shows that babies
become securely attached when their parents are consistently sensitive and responsive to their needs, comforting them
when they are distressed, playing and talking and singing to them when they seek interaction, and allowing quiet time
when they give cues that say they don’t want to be hugged or fed or tickled right now. With sensitive, responsive care,
babies learn to trust their caregivers and perceive the world as a safe place.
Babies also learn that they have the power to solicit what they need; when their signals to their caregivers are effective,
babies have their first experience of competence and what developmental psychologists call “effectance”—discovering that
they have an effect on those around them. This is what we would wish for all children. With that foundation of trust and
security, children venture out with confidence and enthusiasm, using their attachment figures as a secure base from which
to explore and learn about the world around them. Securely attached children also regulate their emotions more effectively
and are more likely to enter into cooperative, caring relationships with other adults and children than children who do not
have that firm foundation of a secure attachment.
In contrast, when parents are inconsistent, unresponsive and/or insensitive to babies’ cues and signals, babies learn that
they cannot count on their parents for care and support. Furthermore, these babies feel powerless to solicit the care they
need and they develop an insecure (also called “anxious”) attachment. Depending on the particular type of care a baby
has received—and the type of insecure attachment the baby develops with his or her parent(s)—in the long run, the child
is at risk for a lack of confidence, anxiety, behavior problems and relationship difficulties throughout childhood and into
adulthood. To learn more about research on parent-infant attachment—how it develops and how it influences later
developmental outcomes— see the 2002 book, Infants, Toddlers & Families: A Framework for Support and Intervention,
by Martha Farrell Erickson (the author of this paper) and Karen Kurz-Riemer.

“Fresh air, a gentle breeze, the warmth of the sun, the fragrance of flowers
and grass can calm both a fussy baby and a frazzled parent, allowing for
one of those special moments of quiet connection.
”
So, what does shared nature experience have to do with parent-child attachment? Research has not looked specifically
at a link between outdoor experience and quality of parent-child attachment, and certainly parents can be sensitive and
responsive to their babies and young children indoors or out. But, in many ways, the natural world seems to invite and
facilitate parent-child connection and sensitive interactions. For example, as many parents note, their homes are filled with
distractions—household chores begging to be done, as well as TVs, computers and telephones inviting parents to multi-task
rather than focus on their baby. But unplugging and taking baby into the back yard, a park, or a nature trail can eliminate
those distractions and create an opportunity for what is called “affective sharing”—oohing and aahing together over the
sun shining through the leaves of a big tree, feeling the rough bark and the soft moss on the tree’s trunk, listening to the
sounds of birds or squirrels, feeling a soft spring rain or a light winter snowfall on your face. (Affective sharing is a feature
of a securely attached infant and parent.)
Because the natural world is filled with sights, sounds, and smells that ignite a young child’s curiosity and invite active
exploration, being outdoors also can make it easy for a parent to follow the child’s lead, to respond to the child’s cues and
expressed interests, to share the child’s delight in new discoveries and experiences—the very ingredients shown to lead to
a secure attachment. Furthermore, many a parent has discovered that an almost surefire way to soothe a tired, cranky infant
is to go outdoors. Fresh air, a gentle breeze, the warmth of the sun, the fragrance of flowers and grass can calm both a
fussy baby and a frazzled parent, allowing for one of those special moments of quiet connection. (As mentioned in the next
section of this paper, a growing body of research is beginning to document the power of nature to reduce stress.)

Biophilia:
A Natural Connection to Natural Things?
Some scientists contend that human beings have an innate attraction to other living things. Dubbed the “biophilia
hypothesis,” this idea was set forth by Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson in his 1984 book, Biophilia: The Human Bond
with Other Species, and has been the focus of many essays and books in the 25 years since, including the 1993 book,
The Biophilia Hypothesis, edited with Wilson by C&NN Board member, Dr. Stephen Kellert of Yale. Although the concept
of biophilia is still a hypothesis, with a good number of supporters and some detractors (as is true with most hypotheses),
the concept rings true for me when I watch the behavior of young children, including my own grandchildren.
For example, when I have taken my toddler and preschool-aged grandkids to a nearby shopping mall, I have noticed on
several occasions that they gravitate toward the few scrawny trees planted outside the entrance, dashing behind them
and saying, “I’m hiding in the woods.” And they seem far more interested in the caterpillar on the leafy plant—or the
hummingbird hovering over the flowers near the parking lot—than in what the mall has to offer.
I recall my first grandchild, when she was only eleven months old and just beginning to walk, pushing her own stroller
around our neighborhood, excitedly filling the stroller basket with leaves and twigs and flower petals, later examining them
one-by-one while sitting in our front yard. Not much later that same little girl was wide-eyed with wonder when she realized
that the baby monkey at the zoo was drinking from its mother’s breast. “Na-na!” she exclaimed, using the word she had
created to name her own breastfeeding experience. It seemed clear to me that she was well aware, even at this very young
age, of the similarity between the baby monkey’s experience and her own. She had another “aha moment” that summer in
the birthing barn at the state fair, when she saw newborn baby piglets being suckled by their mother. Their mom gave them
“na-na” too, just like her mom did for her.
I don’t offer those simple anecdotes necessarily as evidence in support of the biophilia hypothesis. But those observations
do make me think about the capacity of very young children to connect with other living things. Those observations and
others also lead me to wonder how children’s recognition of similarities between themselves and other species might
influence their concern for—and willingness to care for—the natural world. And, in the case of my little granddaughter,
I wonder how her discovery of the mother-baby connections among the monkeys and the pigs might help her make
meaning of her own attachment with her mother and other adults who care for her.
If nothing more, I’m confident that by watching these very young children discover, explore, and make sense of the world
around them, I have seen the world through new eyes. I have renewed my awareness of how much even babies and
toddlers are taking in. I have watched my young adult children—away from their laptops—fully engaged in supporting their
children’s play and exploration. And, through these shared nature experiences, I have felt my own relationship with this
next generation of my family growing ever closer.

Building on Those Foundations
as Children Get Older
Moving beyond the toddler years, the possibilities for families to share both adventures and quiet times in the outdoors
multiply rapidly. Family hikes, canoeing, fishing, camping, gardening, or simply an after-lunch nap or quiet reading time
on a blanket in a neighborhood park or your own backyard—all of these are opportunities for fun, learning and connection.
Because most of us as adults still have much to learn about nature, these outdoor experiences can be times to learn with
our children and from our children. I remember when my son was only in the first or second grade, he taught me all sorts
of things about some of the bugs and animals indigenous to where we lived— things I either had never learned or had
forgotten. The reciprocity and mutual respect such interactions engender are important elements of close parent-child
relationships as children move toward adulthood.
The outdoors—especially environments beyond the familiarity of our own neighborhood—often bring out fears in young
and old alike. It’s common to be fearful of bugs and other outdoor creatures, the dark, and simply the unknown. There’s
nothing like a family camping trip to tap into those fears, but also to allow an opportunity for children (and adults too)
to master those fears. What a great way to reinforce a secure parent-child relationship—to confront challenges, provide
comfort and encouragement to each other, and then settle into a cozy tent and tell each other bedtime stories before falling
asleep. Family camping trips have been one way we have maintained close relationships with our children from the time
they were babies right into adulthood. Last summer we took the first 3-generation camping trip with our three grandchildren,
then two and three-and-a-half years old. Even at these young ages, the kids talk now about last year’s camping trip as if it
were “the good old days”—reminiscing about the s’mores cooked over the fire, the thrill of going into the woods after dark,
even the annoying mosquitoes that are an inevitable part of most camping trips in Minnesota. (The oldest also reminds me
how much I complained about the mosquitoes!) By recounting these memories, the children are contributing to our family
narrative, a powerful way to sustain and reinforce strong family bonds.
By the way, the grandchildren also love to hear over and over the story about one of the first camping trips my husband and
I took when our children were small and our son crawled into our double sleeping bag to get warm between my husband
and me, only to wet the bed about five minutes later. Sometimes shared nature experience brings a family a little too close!
Family experiences in the outdoors—especially those that include a little challenge or require a little work—afford great
opportunities to build children’s competence and encourage their autonomy, even as we emphasize the importance of
interdependence within the family group. Whether caring for a garden, paddling a canoe across a lake, or setting up a
campsite, everyone has responsibilities and cooperation is key. Even the youngest child in the family can come to see that
he or she has something to contribute to the common good. Not only is that crucial to the child’s developing sense of self,
but it allows the adults in the family to see the child’s competencies, decision-making, and problem-solving abilities.
This furthers the mutual trust and respect within the family—again, key ingredients for enduring close relationships.

“Family experiences in the outdoors — especially those that include a
little challenge or require a little work — afford great opportunities to
build children’s competence and encourage their autonomy, even as we
emphasize the importance of interdependence within the family group.
”
Finally (although this paper is by no means the last word on the possible family benefits of shared nature experience),
it is no small thing to consider the potential of nature to alleviate the stress so many families say dominates their lives.
Currently, Dr. Frances Kuo and her research team at the University of Illinois are conducting some of the most interesting
and provocative research on children and nature. In short, that research suggests that being in nature—or even just seeing
nature through the window of one’s urban apartment building—is associated with feeling less stressed, anxious and
depressed. That team’s studies also show that children—including children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD)—concentrate better after spending time outdoors in “green” settings. (You can find summaries of this
and other research on the website of the Children & Nature Network, www.childrenandnature.org.) Similarly, a number of
studies in the health field have shown a link between the presence of nature and a person’s physical and emotional health
and well-being.
Although an individual anecdote is no substitute for scientific data, I have found over the years that even very short “nature
breaks” allow me to calm down and focus when I’m having a particularly challenging day. I carry a couple of collapsible
canvas chairs in the back of my car so, in the midst of a busy day, I can seek out a grassy spot (or even a snowy spot during
our cold winters) and sit in my chair for a few minutes to breathe deeply and be soothed by my natural surroundings. The
reason I have “a couple of” those chairs is that my oldest grandchild has taken up the idea of nature breaks too and likes
to join me when we’re out and about together. Based on both research and firsthand experience, I contend that the great
outdoors may just be one of the best and most accessible “natural” stress-busters any individual or family could find.
And with less stress come better relationships.

CONCLUSION:
Where Do We Go Next, as Family Members or Researchers?
Certainly there are many ways to build and sustain family bonds. But in today’s hurried, high-tech world, shared nature
experience presents a natural opportunity for families to put into practice the most important components of strong, healthy
relationships—sensitive interactions, affective sharing, joint problem-solving, interdependence, and, free from the many
distractions of most households, emotional availability to each other. Shared nature experience, both simple and elaborate,
is something families can enjoy together from the earliest months of a baby’s life through every stage of the child’s development
and right on into adulthood (even into the next generation, as I have had the delight of experiencing in recent years).
That said, my assertions about the benefits of shared nature experience are based primarily on indirect evidence and
anecdote. It would be helpful to have rigorous research that examines more directly the connection between nature experience
and family bonds. For example, to what extent and in what ways does shared nature experience contribute to a secure
parent-child attachment and, more generally, to healthy family relationships over time? Does the natural environment offer a
unique context for facilitating parental sensitivity and reciprocal parent-child interactions? If families not already inclined to
spend time in nature together were engaged in a nature-based intervention would their family relationships improve? And
would they improve more than similar families engaged in some other kind of non-nature-based intervention? These are
just a handful of the questions research could address, building on the growing body of research that already is beginning
to document the individual benefits of nature experience for children. (Note that a part of C&NN’s mission and workplan has
included convening leading researchers in this field to develop a research agenda and be a catalyst for additional and
rigorous research on children and nature.)
Although I welcome and encourage such research—and, in fact, am helping to lead the research-promotion efforts of C&NN,
mentioned above—I’m not waiting for the results before I plunge ahead with my own agenda of shared nature experience!
Right now my husband and I are planning the 2nd annual 3-generation family camping trip with our children and
grandchildren this summer (including the youngest, now 7 months old). And in the weeks between now and then, playing
outside in the rain, taking nature walks, and tending a toddler garden will be part of the everyday activities I share with
my grandchildren—one of the primary pathways we have chosen to sustain our strong family bonds and extend them into
the next generation and generations that follow.
Martha Farrell Erickson is a developmental psychologist who retired in 2008 from the University of Minnesota, where she
was founding director of the Children, Youth & Family Consortium, director of the Irving B. Harris Training Programs in early
childhood mental health, and adjunct professor in both the Institute of Child Development and the Department of Family Social
Science. Dr. Erickson continues to speak and consult on child and family topics throughout the U.S. and abroad. She also
co-hosts (with her daughter Erin) the radio show Good Enough Moms™(FM107.1, Twin Cities) and does regular child and family
features for KARE-TV (NBC). She is a founding board member of the Children & Nature Network.
(Contact information: mferick@umn.edu)

Children & Nature Network The mission of the Children & Nature Network (C&NN) is to build a
Board of Directors movement to reconnect children and nature. The primary goal of the
C&NN is to achieve systemic change so every child, every year, every
Richard Louv, Chairman
day, will have the opportunity to directly experience contact with
Cheryl Charles, Ph.D., President and CEO
nature. Research indicates that children who explore, learn, and play
Martin LeBlanc, Vice President
outside on a regular basis are healthier, happier, smarter, more
Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D., Secretary
cooperative, more creative and more fulfilled. Their well-being is
Brother Yusuf Burgess, Member
enhanced while they develop a sense of place and bond with family,
Stephen R. Kellert, Ph.D., Member
community and their environment. C&NN builds awareness, provides
access to state-of-the art resources, supports the grassroots with
Amy Pertschuk, Managing Director
tools and strategies, develops publications and educational materials,
Betsy Townsend, Chair,
synthesizes the best available research, and encourages collaboration
C&NN Grassroots Leadership Team
to heal the broken bond between children and nature. Since our
founding in 2006, C&NN has fostered grassroots initiatives in more
For additional information,
than 50 cities, states and nations. Our geographic reach is international,
please contact us at:
beginning predominantly in the United States and Canada. No other
Children & Nature Network organization offers such a comprehensive, non-partisan, multi-sector
7 Avenida Vista Grande B-7, #502 approach to effecting social change to reconnect children and nature.
Santa Fe, NM 87508
www.childrenandnature.org
info@childrenandnature.org
Volume one: Number 2
Reflections on Children’s
Experience of Nature
Stephen R. Kellert, Ph.D.
Professor, Yale University, School of Forestry and
Environmental Studies
Executive Chairman, Bio-Logical Capital
PHOTO: jon beard
I want to address aspects of the importance of children’s experiential connection with the natural world and what I believe
must occur, from a psychological and policy perspective, to remedy what constitutes a profound threat to our future. For what
is being addressed here is not just an amenity benefit for children, an optional opportunity for going outside, enjoying and
learning about nature, a means of fostering a conservation ethic or an attitude of good stewardship, or a way to encourage
exercise or affirm our nation’s natural heritage. Far more, we are actually considering the future of our species.
The pioneering psychiatrist, Harold Searles (1960:27), suggested a half century ago that: “The non-human environment,
far from being of little or no account to human personality development, constitutes one of the most basically important
ingredients of human psychological existence.” Since then, theory and evidence have emerged to support the notion
that humans possess a biological need to affiliate with natural systems and processes, particularly during the important
formative childhood years, and this relationship is critical to children’s health, productivity, physical and mental well being
(Kellert and Wilson 1993, Kellert 2005, Louv 2008, Children and Nature Network 2009).
Yet, there appears only marginal appreciation of the significance of this human-child relationship. The prevailing paradigm
of the modern urban world instead endorses the assumption that the measure of progress and civilization is our distance
from and even transcendence of the natural world. We have become increasingly blind to the reality that our species, like
all species, evolved in a biological – not an artificial, engineered, or machine dominated – context, and that consequently
our physical, emotional and intellectual fitness continues to rely on a vast matrix of connections to natural systems and
processes, particularly during childhood. The human mind and body genetically emerged in a biocentric world, and
the sparse data available suggests our most cherished capacities – physical health, emotional attachment, self concept,
personal identity, critical thinking, problem solving, curiosity, imagination, even culture – depends in myriad irreplaceable
ways on our experience of nature, again particularly during the formative years of childhood. Our progress and civilization
cannot be measured by the delusional assumption that we somehow escaped our biology and related dependence on
nature. Much of what makes us fully and functionally human continues to be contingent on a rich tapestry of experiential
ties to the natural world whether we choose to live off the land or become urban investment bankers. Despite our
remarkable capacity for learning, individuality, culture and creativity,
we remain bound like all creatures by the constraints of our biology.
And, like any species, even one uniquely capable of life-long
learning, the greatest maturational development of these basic
biological dependencies is during the childhood years.
This extraordinary formative influence of nature in children’s health

and development underscores this connection is not just a matter
of physical fitness and intellectual capacity, but as well emotional
capacity, identity, basic values, and even our moral and spiritual
condition. The well springs of human motivation, the origins of
our fitness and survival, evolutionarily emerged from our inherent
inclination to affiliate with the natural world, what colleagues and
I have labeled, “biophilia” (Wilson 1984, Kellert and Wilson 1993,
Kellert 1997, 2005). A child’s optimal development, the emergence
of a secure and positive identity, the ability to think critically and
resolve problems, the formation of self-confidence and self-esteem,
and even health and maturation rely on beneficial interactions with
PHOTo: brother yusuf
the natural world.
Reflections on Children’s Experience of Nature

“Because children’s experience of nature remains a vital and irreplaceable
source of healthy development, nothing less than the future of our species is
at stake in maintaining and, when compromised, restoring this relationship.
”
This relationship to environmental systems and processes must occur at home, at school, through personal experience
and place-based learning. Children need to experience nature in direct, indirect, and representational ways as an integral
part of their everyday lives. We must, therefore, depart from the notion of nature as a place to visit in a park or a forest,
sequestered and apart from a child’s normal existence. We must dispel the notion that formally structured or informally
organized programs, whether at school or in the forest, are the only antidotes for the increasing disconnect of children
from the natural world. We need to appreciate that children require as well unstructured, unmediated, even risk prone
opportunities for free, spontaneous, and frequently unsupervised contact with the natural world in the context of everyday
life. We need to recognize that restoring children’s contact with nature is not just about enhanced intellectual understanding
and support for conservation, but also about the chance to experience a sense of wonder, joy, exuberance, awe, even fear
and trepidation, all and more, the raw stuff of normal and healthy development. We also need to realize that contact with
nature is not just about direct physical contact in the outdoors and with living systems, but as well the representational
and symbolic expression of the shape and pattern of the natural world revealed in story, picture, myth, legend, and more.
Because children’s experience of nature remains a vital and irreplaceable source of healthy development, nothing less
than the future of our species is at stake in maintaining and, when compromised, restoring this relationship. This need is
especially pronounced today when various indicators suggest a profound impoverishment in the quality and quantity
of children’s experience of natural process and diversity with children revealing as a consequence alarming increases in
rates of obesity, chronic illness, attention deficit disorder, and other physical and mental maladies. The crisis of deeply
diminished connections between children and the biological basis of our humanity is too great for us to remain passive.
The scale and scope of the problem calls for bold steps and a deeper understanding of what is at stake.
PHOTO: jon beard

REFERENCES:
Children and Nature Network. 2009. Research and Studies, Volumes I-IV.
www.childrenandnature.org.
Kahn, P. and S. Kellert. 2002. Children and Nature: Psychological, Sociocultural, and Evolutionary Investigations.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Kellert, S. 2005. Building for Life: Designing and Understanding the Human-Nature Connection.
Washington, DC: Island Press.
Kellert, S. 1997. Kinship to Mastery: Biophilia in Human Evolution and Development.

Kellert, S. and E.O. Wilson, ed. 1993. The Biophilia Hypothesis.

Louv, R. 2008. Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder.
Chapel Hill: Algonquin Press.
Searles, H. 1960. The Nonhuman Environment: In Normal Development and Schizophrenia.

New York: International Universities Press.
Wilson, E.O. 1984. Biophilia: The Human Bond with Other Species.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
Stephen R. Kellert, Ph.D., is the Tweedy Ordway Professor of Social Ecology at the Yale University School of Forestry and
Environmental Studies, Executive Chair of Bio-Logical Capital, a sustainable land investment and management firm,
and a founding Partner and now consultant in the company, Environment Capital Partners, a private equity firm that
invests in the environmental industry. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Children & Nature Network
(www.childrenandnature.org). His work focuses on understanding the connection between human and natural systems
with a particular interest in the conservation of nature and sustainable design of the human built environment. He is
the recipient of numerous awards, and author of numerous books and articles, including the recent 2008 American
Publishers Professional and Scholarly Best Book of Year Award in Architecture and Urban Planning for the book Biophilic
Design: The Theory, Science, and Practice of Bringing Buildings to Life (co-editors, S. Kellert, J. Heerwagen, M. Mador,
John Wiley, 2008).

Richard Louv, Chairman C&NN is to achieve systemic change so every child, every year, every
Brother Yusuf Burgess, Member enhanced while they develop a sense of place and bond with family,
Stephen R. Kellert, Ph.D., Member community and their environment. C&NN builds awareness, provides
Amy Pertschuk, Managing Director tools and strategies, develops publications and educational materials,
Juan Martinez, Natural Leaders synthesizes the best available research, and encourages collaboration
Network™ Coordinator to heal the broken bond between children and nature. Since our
Sara St. Antoine, Senior Writer and founding in 2006, C&NN has fostered grassroots initiatives in more
Switzer Fellow than 50 cities, states and nations. Our geographic reach is international,
Betsy Townsend, Chair, beginning predominantly in the United States and Canada. No other
C&NN Grassroots Leadership Team organization offers such a comprehensive, non-partisan, multi-sector
approach to effecting social change to reconnect children and nature.

Children & Nature Network
7 Avenida Vista Grande B-7, #502
Santa Fe, NM 87508
Volume one: Number 3
Back to Nature and

the Emerging Child
Saving Movement:
Restoring Children’s Outdoor Play*
Dr. Joe L. Frost

Parker Centennial Professor Emeritus
University of Texas
PHOTO: jon beard
Grounds for play or “playgrounds” are not merely the commercial venues created by adults, but have always been wherever
the special places in the woods of the countryside and the vacant spaces of villages and cities can take children on magical
flights of fantasy. “Cyber playgrounds” for playing indoors with video games, elaborate “water playscapes” at theme parks,
and even places where adults go for entertainment may be called “playgrounds.” Now, with the exploding interest and action
on getting children back to nature, labels such as “naturescapes” and “playscapes” are becoming more common. We cannot
bring back to urban bound children the expansive “wildscapes” for play enjoyed by most children for centuries but we
can bring back little pieces of nature to complement their contemporary playthings and enrich their lives. We can bring back
spontaneous play—the delicate dance of childhood that strengthens the mind and body and nourishes the soul.

*Adapted from Frost, Joe L. A History of Children’s Play and Play Environments: Toward a Contemporary Child Saving Movement.
Routledge: New York & London. 2009. www.Routledge.com
Memories of my wilderness and barnyard play and daily recesses at school in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas during
the Great Depression and World War II remain strong and clear—mostly joyful times of building dams in the creek behind
the school; choosing sides, building forts, and playing war in the forest beyond the creek; playing shinney and baseball in
the clearing; caring for the farm animals that served as pets, work stock, and some for food; tending gardens and eating raw
vegetables directly from the plants; swimming and fishing in the clear, fast flowing river and creeks; playing rodeo with real
animals in the barnyard; working in the fields with the “grown men” during the day and chasing “coon dogs” through the
woods at night. Children’s play throughout history was much like this—relatively free, intertwined with work, spontaneous,
and set in the playgrounds of the wilderness, fields, streams, and barnyards. Children in cities enjoyed similar forms of
play, but their playgrounds were the vacant lands, parks, and surrounding countryside or seashore. Following World War
II, the technology revolution ushered in television, cyber toys, new forms of transportation, and parents intent on giving
their children advantages they themselves had missed. Over time, the working, free-roaming child of previous eras would
be replaced with a pampered child, created and sustained by hovering parents increasingly fearful for their children’s safety
and anxious about their achievements in school and vocation. Both parents went to work, leaving children to their cyber
playgrounds and government-imposed,
increasingly rigid and illogical standards for
schools. The X and Y generations gave way to
the XXL generation, as outdoor play and play
environments were abandoned, junk food
became a major source of nutrition and
sustenance, fitness levels declined, waist lines
began to soar, and rare childhood diseases
emerged and multiplied. Throughout this rapid
transition, ages-old traditions of play were
short-circuited and the consequences for
children’s health and development were rapid
and extensive. Except under insufferable
conditions of poverty, abuse and disaster,
active, outdoor play prevailed throughout history
and children played outdoors and bonded with
nature—until now.
PHOTO: susan shafer, nysdec
Back to Nature and the Emerging Child Saving Movement

The Disappearance of
Outdoor Play
Now, during the short span of three or four decades, centuries-old freedom to play has evolved into a play and play
environments crisis that threatens the health, fitness and welfare of children. As the Greatest Generation gave way to the
technology revolution and excesses of growing affluence, children’s play and play environments changed in remarkable
ways. School systems across America joined the rush to over-parenting and over-management and reduced or deleted
recess, restricted physical education, drilled children incessantly on standardized tests, and further interfered with their
health and development with cafeteria diets of junk food and sugar drinks. Growing numbers of schools prohibit rough
and tumble, chase, dodge ball, and other games allowing physical contact, and some prohibit running on the playground.
Excessive safety standards and threat of lawsuits replace adult oversight and many children grow progressively weak and
fail to develop the physical and cognitive skills to protect themselves against injury. All this may prove to be only the tip
of the iceberg, as neuroscientists and other scholars continue to uncover the deleterious effects of free, outdoor play
deprivation on children’s learning, and on their cognitive, social and emotional development.
PHOTO: jon beard

The Consequences of Disconnect from
Outdoor Play and Nature
The consequences of not playing outdoors, the diminution of recess, and the abandonment of outdoor play in schools,
neighborhoods and natural areas are fundamental issues in a growing crisis resulting in serious health effects and
potentially diminishing life spans of the present generation. The “canaries in the coal mine,” signaling this crisis, were the
increases in childhood obesity even before the turn of the present century, characterized by early signals of physiological
and psychological disorders. Before the end of the first decade of the 21st century, rapid onset of obesity, childhood
diabetes, circulatory diseases, rickets, fatty liver disease, and childhood depression had entered the scene, giving the health
crisis growing characteristics of a pandemic. Parents and teachers were faced with the dilemma of children developing
cancer from too much sunlight and rickets from too little. The children of entire industrialized nations, especially in the
United States, are losing their natural outdoor grounds for play and forgetting how to engage in free, spontaneous outdoor
play and culture-enhancing traditional games.
The consequences of outdoor play and nature deprivation are staggering in their scope and intensity and confounded by
“balanced diets” of a sugar drink in one hand and cookies in the other. Scientists who study both animal and human play
and outdoor playscapes no longer view them as non-essential but important for survival, adaptation, and well-being. Play
and learning are mutually supportive and necessary for a healthy childhood and a competent adulthood. Outdoor play
deprivation can be associated with physical and emotional illnesses, depression, violence, diminished impulse control,
addictive predilections, reduced school achievement, and social abnormalities. The work of neuroscientists shows that play
builds brains and play deprivation can change those brains in remarkably damaging ways.
The benefits of outdoor environments and nature experiences are remarkable and extensive. These include: inner
peace, stress reduction, fitness, healing, mental health, and creativity; physical, emotional and intellectual development;
bonding with nature, appreciation for nature, and heightened sense of beauty. Unstructured experiences in nature are
more beneficial than structured experiences and the benefits are universal across cultural and geographic areas. Research
conclusions from studies of the benefits of play and experiences in nature and the consequences of their loss are similar in
many respects, raising issues about the relative contributions of the activity and the context or environments that are yet
to be extensively explored. Voluminous evidence suggests that outdoor play deprivation contributes to obesity and, over
time, the social and physical effects of obesity contribute, in circular fashion, to play deprivation. As the obese child grows
progressively weak in relation to weight, and dexterity and socialization abilities decline or fail to develop, he or she may
withdraw from trying and wander aimlessly during recess and neighborhood play, avoiding strenuous activity and seeking
attention and status through bullying or helping smaller children. Many Americans have never appeared to understand that
seemingly frivolous, inconsequential children’s play is an innate, biological quality, and its expression is essential to healthy
development in both animals and humans. Both play deprivation and nature deprivation exact serious consequences on
children’s development, health, and well-being. Similarly, both spontaneous play and experiences in nature are deeply
rooted in history and culture and a growing array of evidence links biology to this triumvirate.

The Effects of Poverty
The crisis in play, fitness, and health—like other crises in the past—has inordinate effects across socioeconomic and cultural
contexts. It extends beyond mere diminution of outdoor play and play environments and encompasses past failures to
provide equal opportunity to all children, especially to the poor. Indeed, the solutions extend far beyond the provision of
playgrounds, parks, and recess to encompass a shift in societal values and, consequently, a changed culture of childhood.
In past centuries, the problems of obesity and poor physical fitness were primarily seen among the aristocracy or upper
class. The poor, even children, engaged in hard manual labor, and their food was limited and came directly from the land.
Now the diets of the poor are typically carbohydrate and calorie rich, and they suffer the same fate as other children by
confinement to their indoor cyber playgrounds. Consequently, communities highest in poverty and lowest in educational
levels have the highest rates of obesity and the poorest fitness levels.
Popular literature tells us that many kids are over-indulged by hovering, “helicopter” parents, and that is true, particularly in
middle and upper income families. However, hovering is not so common among poor families and single-parent families.
Many are forced by circumstances of survival to under-indulge their children, and the effects may be painfully visible when
their children arrive at school. Such deficiencies are exacerbated by excessive high-calorie food and poor nutrition. Every
organization that supports children’s play, such as foundations and non-profit organizations, or provides play and learning
spaces, such as parks, children’s museums, and summer camps, can consider and implement ways to ensure that all
children, rich or poor, have many opportunities for outdoor play in both built and natural playscapes.
Coupled with lack of play spaces and lack of support, children of slums and barrios may spend their childhoods with little
or no opportunity to play in clean dirt; swim in clear, running streams; hear and see animals in their natural habitats;
and feel the sensations of walking through meadows and woodlands on dewy mornings, climbing trees, building forts,
and exploring wild places. These are the experiences that bond children to the natural world, sharpen their senses,
inspire a sense of beauty, and build emerging concepts of biology, geology, physics and language. And they are critical
brain-building experiences for complementing the physical, social, and cognitive skills developed in recess, free outdoor
play, and compact nature areas in schoolyards and neighborhood parks.
The poor suffer more than others from the brain-dead view that the only worthwhile learning is that of classrooms full of
bleary-eyed children memorizing trivia for tests.

Toward a Contemporary Child
Saving Movement
More than a century ago immigrants were swarming into the crowded slums of large eastern cities, and families from
failing farms were joining them in desperate efforts to improve their lives through the oft-failing promises of jobs in
industry. Disease, homelessness, hunger, and crime were rampant; orphans were everywhere; and thousands of abandoned
children were surviving in the streets, shanties, and alleys while others endured long hours in factories. These same
dangerous places were their play environments. Seeing the deleterious effects on children, charitable groups, government,
concerned individuals, educators, and churches awakened to the plight of children and initiated a series of reforms to
create a “Child Saving Movement.”
Some of these reforms of the early child saving movement were intertwined by reason of common contributors and
leaders. This period saw the creation of the Playground Association of America (PAA), the American Play and Playground
Movement, and reforms or sub-movements to form children’s museums, school gardens, nature study, botanical gardens,
and summer camps. All these reforms endured in some form to the present time and are now expanding, converging,
and contributing to the resolution of the present crisis in children’s play, fitness, and health.
There are certain common threads among the philosophies and work of many of the world’s most prominent philosophers
and scholars throughout earlier historical eras and the more recent research of leading scholars across the behavioral
sciences. Despite the passage of centuries, many of the lessons drawn out here are still widely ignored in American schools
and in American playgrounds—specifically the lessons that individual differences in children are universal; that there are
stages in childhood that should be recognized; that adults can learn much about child rearing and education by observing
children; that all the senses should be trained; that direct experience should play an important role in child rearing and
education; that work and learning should be playful; that kindness should rule over punishment; that objects and events
must be observed, felt, and experienced, in concrete form; that schools should be child centered; and that play, physical
activity and experiences in nature are essential for the health and development of children. These are lessons forgotten or
yet to be learned by those responsible for contemporary actions and policies that reduce recess, playscapes and free,
spontaneous outdoor play in nature.

PHOTO: kathleen diamond

“A much-needed contemporary child saving movement is emerging, and,
unprecedented energy is directed to saving children’s free, spontaneous
outdoor play, recess, and natural and built play environments.
”
Our present play and nature crisis is far more extensive and complex than the crisis in city slums a century ago, yet
during this first decade of the 21st century, a slowly growing force of parents, professional organizations, local, state, and
national government agencies, and schools and park systems are joining forces to combat the debilitating consequences
of play deprivation and the disappearance of natural environments for play. The nature and scope of children’s play and
the quality and availability of their play environments have gone full circle from nature and improvisation and back to a
rapidly emerging focus on nature. A much-needed contemporary child saving movement is emerging, and unprecedented
energy is directed to saving children’s free, spontaneous outdoor play, recess, and natural and built play environments.
This movement recognizes the need for a reasoned integration of technology and nature in children’s play and work lives.
Many skills attainable through playing with cyber toys and carefully selected play equipment are beneficial for child
development, fitness, and success in a modern, technological, urban oriented age. It is balance—a natural balance—that
children need in their play and in their grounds for play.
I recently attended an overflow crowd of officials and leaders of local, state, and national agencies and organizations
working with the Children and Nature Network (C&NN) to formulate plans for combating many factors underlying the
present health and fitness crisis—neighborhoods unfriendly to children’s play; loss of nature and outdoor play and work;
regimented, test based schooling; fearful, hovering parents; diminution of school play, recess and physical education;
and excessive safety standards and threats of playground injury lawsuits. Such gatherings are growing in frequency as
North Americans and others throughout the world are increasingly seeing the effects of play deprivation in observable,
measurable changes in natural and built environments and opportunities for children’s play and learning. Americans
eventually respond and resolve major crises, but only after the consequences begin to threaten their pocketbooks, their
security, and eventually their children.
All this could be improved and hastened by creating natural spaces and activity-friendly
neighborhoods that are safe, challenging places to explore and play, using mass media to
educate the public; focusing on relieving poverty; providing health and physical education
classes in all schools; reinstating daily recess for elementary schools; and reducing
significantly the time many children spend in cyber play. We can take lessons from solutions
to past crises—slavery and emancipation struggles and successes; the plight of children
in cities a century ago and the early child saving movement; the Great Depression and the
New Deal; World War II and the world alliance; the failed responses to hurricanes Katrina,
Gustav, and Ike; and the economic crisis exploding in 2008 and continuing into 2009. The
resolution to such crises requires public awareness of the severity of the consequences,
PHOTO: JON BEARD
shared leadership, and local, state and national and/or international coordination.

The Post-Modern Era of Play Environments:
Back to Nature
Growing interest in preserving the planet and getting children back to nature are being independently spurred by Al Gore’s
(2006) book, An Inconvenient Truth, and his Academy Award winning documentary by the same title, and Richard Louv’s
(2005, 2008) best-selling book, Last Child In the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. Both are
stimulating a new awareness and call to action. While Al Gore focused on building public awareness concerning global
climate change, Richard Louv, Cheryl Charles, and others formed the Children & Nature Network (C&NN) to build an
international movement to reconnect children and nature. By 2009 they fostered grassroots initiatives of like-minded people
from many disciplines in local, national and international settings to provide news and research, tools, and a growing
network of exemplary outdoor play and nature programs for children. In 2006, a handful of children and nature collaboratives
were formed in the U.S. By 2009, more than 60 state and regional campaigns and community-based, multi-sector
collaboratives had formed or were being assembled, and bills were passed in several states to support the back to nature
campaign for children. Consistent with the trend of these initiatives, the scope broadened to include religious leaders
(spiritual wonders of nature), the Sierra Club (saving the planet), and the health care community (the health connections).
In sum, the appeal is virtually universal—and rapidly spreading. Current, comprehensive reviews of research and extensive
national and international news about what is known and not known about the nature deficit and the spread of the nature
movement are available at www.childrenandnature.org. These and many other positive changes to reconnect children with
nature are emerging, fostered in large part by C&NN.

Intensified awareness of relationships between learning, health, obesity, and human well-being brought these concerns
to a nationwide and later, an international audience. On April 24, 2006 at an event at the National Press Club, Richard Louv
and Cheryl Charles called for a nationwide campaign to “Leave No Child Inside” and to reconnect children and nature.
By June 2007, the campaign had been extensively reported by the media throughout the United States and Europe, and
public consciousness and action had attracted a diverse assortment of people who were working together on a wide range
of initiatives—walkable cities, active-living by design, simple living, health, citizen science, and land trust movements.

A landmark event took place in Washington in 2008 when the “No Child Left Inside Act of 2007” was ratified by Congress.
This Act was built from evidence provided by the Children and Nature Network and others that out-of-classroom learning
is critical for children’s emotional, physical and intellectual health. Research indicated that the pressures for testing resulting
from the “No Child Left Behind Act” were damaging to children’s achievement, development, and fitness, while outdoor
activity and first-hand experiences in nature can improve academic performance, self esteem, responsibility, personal
health (including obesity), and an understanding of nature. The Act focused on environmental literacy for children in
kindergarten through 12th grade, training for their teachers, and education to help combat climate change and preserve
the environment.

City kids in confined schools and neighborhoods, especially those in slums and barrios, cannot be taken to the wilderness
regularly, but thoughtful, innovative adults can bring exciting chunks of nature to city schools, neighborhoods, and parks.
Some playground planners are doing just that by helping child care centers, parks, and schools rebuild their stark, fixed
parks and playgrounds and integrating nature into limited spaces. Over a ten-year period, Robin Moore and Herb Wong
(1997) transformed an asphalt schoolyard playground into a naturalized environment or “environmental yard.” Their
research and work with children are a profound expression of the value of play and natural habitats and a powerful
example of qualitative research. Numerous other professionals lend their research and experience in transforming sterile,
fixed playgrounds into integrated play-yards featuring materials and natural environments that accommodate a wide
range of developmental needs.
The University of Texas Play and Play Environments Research Project (Frost et al., 1979, 2004, 2008) has operated
continuously for more than three decades at Redeemer Lutheran Church, enrolling 500 children in Austin, Texas. This
research site features three play environments with both manufactured and contrived equipment to accommodate various
forms and levels of play, games, vegetable and herb gardens, butterfly gardens, gazebos, greenhouses, and animal habitats.
The butterfly garden was certified as a “Schoolyard Habitat” by the National Wildlife Federation. The overall environment
is a science laboratory, a place for relaxation and reflection, a challenging playground for a wide range of children’s play,
and a site for scholarly research by university students and professors. The most popular natural area is a half-acre
wetlands created from a retention pond extensively re-fashioned to become a wilderness wonderland. One of the children
affectionately dubbed it “the land down under,” a name that has been adopted by the entire school. In the Redeemer
playscapes and wildscapes, spontaneous play and hands-on work blend into one integrated, outdoor compendium
of physical, social, and intellectual activity with all the accompanying fun and learning. Recess and physical education
are available every day, and the cafeteria
features a salad bar and organic food, some
from the school gardens. The overweight
and obesity rate is very low in a state where
the overall rate for children is 19 percent.
PHOTO: bob alwitt

“ In most settings, both natural and built play areas are needed for
the fitness and healthy development of children.
”
There are both likenesses and differences in the developmental values of typical built play environments, schoolyard
habitats or gardens, and natural playscapes. Studying and working in natural environments are complementary to the
physical activities of playing in built play yards. Children need both nature study and free, spontaneous play in and on
physically challenging play spaces and equipment. Schoolyard gardening and nature study provide healthy physical activity
and build knowledge. Playground apparatus builds brachiating skills in traversing overhead apparatus, swinging, running,
sliding, chasing, throwing, catching, climbing, and playing traditional games, not readily available in most school gardens
and nature areas. In most settings, both natural and built play areas are needed for the fitness and healthy development
of children.
City farms, sometimes integrated with adventure playgrounds, are growing in popularity in many regions of the world.
The European Federation of City Farms are environmental and agricultural projects where children and adults work, play,
and learn about the natural environment and its inter-relationship with plants and animals. The city farms started in the
1970s and resulted from the desire of people all over Europe to counter the alienation of people from nature. Presently,
there are eight city farm federations in Europe, and they are spreading around the world. The gardening movement is
expanding in America with community gardens being expanded and home and school gardens becoming more popular,
partly because of rapidly rising food prices, but also due to concern about the potential health consequences of processed
food and additives, and the need for children to develop the social, emotional, intellectual, and physical skills resulting from
gardening. Fortunately, gardens do not require extensive spaces and can be integrated into school yards, playgrounds,
backyards, vacant lots, and city parks.
Those of us who played in the wilderness as children naturally reflect about our freedom to roam the hills and valleys,
explore the remote places, learn the ways of animals and savor the delights of nature, and we yearn for a return to such
awe-inspiring experiences. We will not see most parents suddenly turning their children loose, unsupervised, in such wild
places, even if they were readily available. Unfortunately, they are not available for most children due to urbanization,
private ownership, and remoteness from neighborhoods. In January 2008, a Texas landowner sprayed children playing in
a public creek near his property with shotgun pellets. Further, thanks to sensational, repetitious reporting by the media
about child abductions, injuries, and other possible calamities, parents no longer allow their children to venture far from
home, in many instances, even within their own neighborhoods.


“We must help children rediscover traditional free, creative, outdoor play
and recess, and their wild, natural playscapes.
”
There is no “quick fix” or “magic bullet” for resolving the play, fitness, and health crisis for American children. The
approaches must be multiple, coordinated, and preventive in nature. They must be expansive in scope, taking on some of
the characteristics of a Marshall Plan or a Moon Shot, or the early 20th century child saving movement. Fortunately, many
of the innovative approaches for saving children, initiated during that movement, continued and are expanding during the
early 21st century. We need to organize communities; rethink and rebuild neighborhoods that make it easy to walk to stores,
parks, playgrounds, and schools—and invite various forms of locomotion—walking, jogging, biking. We need to combine
the necessity for experiences in nature and physical activity with the greening of America and protecting the planet from
global warming.
Only the rare crisis stands alone, unaffected by efforts to resolve another. We must get people emotional in a positive sense
about saving play and natural play environments for present and future generations, and call on politicians, organizations,
agencies, and volunteer groups to develop national and local policies that directly or indirectly help resolve the crises
affecting children. Many have started, and more are joining the evolving movement at an unprecedented rate. On March 4,
2009, Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the U.K., addressed the U.S. Congress about the worldwide economic crisis, stating
that he had never before seen a world so ready to “come together” as now to seek resolutions.
The lessons from successes and failures in dealing with crises

PHOTO: jon beard
throughout America’s history pose formidable challenges for resolving

our complex, interrelated, human-made play, play environments,
fitness, and health crisis. Having seen the history of the diminution of
play and play environments, and the changing culture of childhood, and
alert to the consequences, we must help children rediscover traditional
free, creative, outdoor play and recess, and their wild, natural playscapes.
The future test of our resolve is whether we “come together,” as did
our counterparts a century ago, to form a child saving movement to
rescue children in the forgotten streets and slums of cities, the barrios
of border towns, and the ravages of life in many out-of-the-way regions
of our southern mountains. We must free all children and teachers from
the illogical rigors of test-based school curricula and isolated cyber
playgrounds, release them to play, and learn to preserve their natural
play and learning environments. Americans are “coming together”
but we are not yet ready to dance in the end zone because we forget
too easily the lessons of history.

REFERENCES:
Charles, C., et al. 2009. Children and Nature 2009: A Report on the Movement to Reconnect Children and the Natural World.
Santa Fe: Children & Nature Network.
Children & Nature Network. 2009. Research and Studies, Volumes I – IV.
www.childrenandnature.org.
Frost, J.L., & Klein, B.L. 1979. Children’s Play and Playgrounds. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Frost, J.L., Brown, P.S., Sutterby, J. A., & Thornton, C. D. 2004. The Developmental Benefits of Playgrounds.
Olney, MD: Association for Childhood Education International.
Frost, J.L., Wortham, S. C., & Reifel, S. 2008. Play and Child Development.
Columbus, OH: Merrill Prentice-Hall.
Frost, J.L. 2009. A History of Children’s Play and Play Environments: Toward a Contemporary Child Saving Movement.
New York and London: Routledge.
Gore, A. 2006. An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It.
New York: Rodale.
Louv, R. 2008. Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder.
Chapel Hill: Algonquin Press.
Moore, R., and H. Wong. 1997. Natural Learning: The Life History of an Environmental Schoolyard.
Berkeley: MIG Communications.
Joe Frost, Ed.D., L.H.D., Parker Centennial Professor Emeritus, University of Texas, has lectured throughout Europe,
Asia, and North America and is currently writing articles and books, lecturing at professional conferences, directing a
three-decades-running research program on children’s play and play environments, and serving as a volunteer to
not-for-profit child care organizations. His most recent books are The Developmental Benefits of Playgrounds (with
Pei San Brown, John Sutterby, & Candra Thornton); Play and Child Development (third edition, with Sue Wortham &
Stuart Reifel); and A History of Children’s Play and Play Environments: Toward a Contemporary Child Saving Movement,
resulting from a four-year research and review of hundreds of out-of-print books, historical documents, and current
publications on children’s play. He served as President of the International Play Association (USA) and President of the
Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI) and has received numerous awards, including the Patty Smith
Hill Award by ACEI, and the Great Friend to Kids Award by the Association for Children’s Museums.

Richard Louv, Chairman C&NN is to achieve systemic change so every child, every year, every
Brother Yusuf Burgess, Member enhanced while they develop a sense of place and bond with family,
Stephen R. Kellert, Ph.D., Member community and their environment. C&NN builds awareness, provides
Amy Pertschuk, Managing Director tools and strategies, develops publications and educational materials,
Juan Martinez, Natural Leaders synthesizes the best available research, and encourages collaboration
Network™ Coordinator to heal the broken bond between children and nature. Since our
Sara St. Antoine, Senior Writer and founding in 2006, C&NN has fostered grassroots initiatives in more
Switzer Fellow than 50 cities, states and nations. Our geographic reach is international,
Betsy Townsend, Chair, beginning predominantly in the United States and Canada. No other
C&NN Grassroots Leadership Team organization offers such a comprehensive, non-partisan, multi-sector
approach to effecting social change to reconnect children and nature.

Children & Nature Network
7 Avenida Vista Grande B-7, #502
Santa Fe, NM 87508

Children and Nature Network

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C&NN Leadership Writing Series

Volume One: Number 1

Shared Nature Experience

PHOTO: mark j. humpert

Shared Nature Experience as a Pathway to Strong Family Bonds

Shared Nature Experience as a Pathway to Strong Family Bonds

Shared Nature Experience as a Pathway to Strong Family Bonds

Shared Nature Experience as a Pathway to Strong Family Bonds

Shared Nature Experience as a Pathway to Strong Family Bonds

Shared Nature Experience as a Pathway to Strong Family Bonds

Shared Nature Experience as a Pathway to Strong Family Bonds

PHOTO: jon beard

This extraordinary formative influence of nature in children’s health

Reflections on Children’s Experience of Nature

PHOTO: jon beard

Reflections on Children’s Experience of Nature

Kellert, S. 1997. Kinship to Mastery: Biophilia in Human Evolution and Development.

Kellert, S. and E.O. Wilson, ed. 1993. The Biophilia Hypothesis.

Searles, H. 1960. The Nonhuman Environment: In Normal Development and Schizophrenia.

Reflections on Children’s Experience of Nature

For additional information,

Back to Nature and

Dr. Joe L. Frost

PHOTO: jon beard

PHOTO: susan shafer, nysdec

Back to Nature and the Emerging Child Saving Movement

PHOTO: jon beard

Back to Nature and the Emerging Child Saving Movement

Back to Nature and the Emerging Child Saving Movement

Back to Nature and the Emerging Child Saving Movement

PHOTO: kathleen diamond

Back to Nature and the Emerging Child Saving Movement

Back to Nature and the Emerging Child Saving Movement

Back to Nature and the Emerging Child Saving Movement

PHOTO: bob alwitt

Back to Nature and the Emerging Child Saving Movement

Back to Nature and the Emerging Child Saving Movement

The lessons from successes and failures in dealing with crises

throughout America’s history pose formidable challenges for resolving

Back to Nature and the Emerging Child Saving Movement

Back to Nature and the Emerging Child Saving Movement

For additional information,

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