Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

A generation ago, we noticed the beginning of what would become a decline in children’s contact with nature. Since the publication of Richard Louv’s book, Last Child in the Woods, in 2005, unlikely partners have joined forces to ensure future generations have a relationship with the outdoors.

13-People who usually don’t want to be in the same room will show up–and even get to the same table. Conservatives, liberals, developers, conservationists, pediatricians, educators… Nobody wants to be in that last generation.

Louv coined a phrase to describe this estrangement: Nature Deficit Disorder.

13- Parents felt it. Kids even felt it. Teachers certainly saw it happening. But, we really didn’t know what to call it. So Nature
Deficit Disorder is a phrase that is familiar enough to be memorable, and people know it when they see it.

Research reveals time spent outdoors makes children and adults happier, healthier and smarter. Nature is good medicine.

25-There are many pediatricians that are beginning to actually prescribe nature’or write a recommendation for it. There’s a pediatrician, Robert Zarr, in Washington DC, that’s organized pediatricians throughout the Nation’s Capital, and they’ve even done a database of the urban parks in DC, so that when the pediatricians write their prescriptions for nature, they can tell that family exactly which park that they can go to. Those kinds of things are happening all over the country.

Find ways to engage the outdoors on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

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