How to Raise a Wild Child
30,097 views |
Scott Sampson |
TEDxLangleyED
• April 2019
Over the past generation, we have witnessed a massive indoor migration. The average North American child now spends seven to ten hours a day gazing at screens and closer to seven minutes playing outdoors. This new reality has been labeled “the extinction of experience.” Abundant research demonstrates that indoor, sedentary lifestyles threaten the health of children and youth, with runaway rates of conditions like obesity, attention deficit disorder, and Type II diabetes. In contrast, unstructured outdoor play turns out to be critical for children’s physical, mental, and emotional health. Also threatened time are the places we live, with sustainability depending upon people understanding and caring about nearby nature. In this presentation, Scott Sampson offers three simple tools that any caregiver can use, starting today, for free, to connect the children in their lives with nature and reawaken a deep sense of amazement. It’s time to balance screen-time with green-time!