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Play and the Outdoors: What's New Under the Sun

by Susan J. Oliver and Edgar Klugman
July/August 2005
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Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/play-and-the-outdoors-whats-new-under-the-sun/5016406/

A generation “at two” with the outdoors?

Are today’s ever more plugged-in young children developing “nature-deficit disorder”? (Louv, 2005). Will they grow up associating bugs with computers rather than the great outdoors? Do they prefer to play indoors because, in the words of one child, “that’s where all the electrical outlets are” (Louv, 2005)?

Whatever the reality, many parents and teachers feel instinctively that childhood today is very different from what it was for previous generations, and a sizable part of the difference has something to do with the changing amount of outdoor play time. Where are the lazy afternoons of exploration in the backyard or local park, lifting up rocks and watching ants race out of sight? What happened to long days in the summer sun, making up games, and setting off on outdoor adventures with neighborhood playmates? Today’s children, noted a recent New York Times article, increasingly are “at two” with nature. “The days of the free-range childhood seem to be over,” noted The Times (McKee, 2005).

Changes in outdoor
playtime for today’s kids

While a bike ride around almost any neighborhood on a sunny Sunday afternoon may leave you asking, “Where are the kids?” there are few studies to confirm that ...

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