Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

It’s a New Year, with new opportunities to encourage your kids to spend more time outdoors, because time in nature may have a positive affect on children with attention issues, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

08—The research so far suggests that there’s a relationship between contact with nature or playing in green space and improvements in attentional functioning

Dr. Andrea Faber Taylor is a child environment and behavior researcher at the University of Illinois. For a study, she had children with ADHD take guided, 20-minute walks in a downtown area, a neighborhood, and a city park, and then tested their ability to concentrate.

20—After the children walked in the park they generally scored higher on the measure of attention. And surprisingly, the neighborhood and the downtown area were not significantly different in scores. That said to us, there’s something about the park, perhaps, the greenness of it, the amount of trees and plants that it has that makes it perhaps, more restorative, than the other two settings.

These findings suggest that it’s the setting, not just the activity that’s important.

19—Based on our work and the work of others, we feel very confident that children benefit from contact with nature or even just what we call green space, a small pocket of trees and grass. Certainly, we’re not suggesting that it’s going to cure a child from ADHD, but it appears to, at least, temporarily reduce their symptoms.

That’s our show…with support from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program…supporting aquatic and hunter education in Texas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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