If you are one of millions of children who over the years have been told to go outside and get some fresh air, you will be surprised to discover that this was actually an instruction with a sound scientific basis. Richard Louv penned this book in 2005, because he was becoming increasingly concerned about the detrimental effect of a lifestyle that was becoming, and continues to become, ever more indoor-based. Children are spending more time inside the home than ever before, partly because the activities that children are drawn to seem to electronic based, and partly because of perceived dangers outside the home that parents are hyper-aware of.
Louv terms these detrimental effects "nature deficit disorder." He contends that this syndrome damages both the individual, and society as a whole. The author presents his research, and research of both partners and fellow academics, and examines it, reaching the conclusion that in order for both children and adults to maintain an emotional and physical well being and balance, a certain amount of exposure to nature is imperative.
In 2008, Louv expanded the book by adding solutions to nature deficit disorder, and suggestions for turning back the world for children to a time when more time was spend outside communing with nature and less time was spent absorbed by the hypnotic power of electronic devices.
The book received a warm reception from the public at large and catapulted to the top of the New York Times Bestseller List for paperback non-fiction. Ecological groups were similarly enthusiastic. The Audubon Society, an organization devoted to the preservation of nature, awarded Louv its eponymous Audubon Medal for linking exposure to nature and mental health and wellbeing in children.
Louv had actually written six books before this, his seventh, brought him a great deal more notoriety. The term "nature deficit disorder" was actually his own, but his work drew from the expertise of psychologists, educationalists and pediatric mental health professionals. Not surprisingly, the book was very popular with parents, and Louv was a popular addition to the editorial board of Parenting magazine. He is also the co-chair of the National Forum on Children and Nature.
