Should our children have the opportunity to play in nature?
September 16, 2009
Posted By: Discovery Place KIDS
What current research is telling us about the time that children spend playing outdoors:
- Children today spend less time playing outdoors than any previous generation. 82% of mothers with children between the ages of 3 and 12 cited crime and safety concerns. (Clements, 2004)
- Today’s children have a more restricted range in which they can play freely, have fewer playmates who are less diverse, and are more home-centered than any previous generation. (Karsten, 2005)
- Children’s free play and discretionary time declined more than seven hours a week from 1981 to 1997 and an additional two hours from 1997 to 2003. (Hofferth and Sandberg, 2001)
- Obesity in children has increased from about 4% in the 1960s to close to 20% in 2004. (CDC), 2006)
- 62% of children do not participate in any organized physical activity and 23% do not participate in any free-time physical activity (CDC, 2003)
- Children between the ages of 6 months and 6 years spend an average of 1.5 hours a day with electronic media. Youth between the ages of 8 and 18 spend an average of 6.5 hours a day with electronic media. (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2005, 2006)
Read
Why Safe Kids Are Becoming Fat Kids. Wall Street Journal — August 13, 2008
by Philip K. Howard
Click here
Post your comments
As a child how often did you participate in outdoor free play? How often do your children participate in outdoor free play? Share your thoughts.
Comments
Post a CommentYep.......obesity levels have tripled in the last 30 years. Surprise! Surprise! Health spending in America has followed the same trend over the same period. In 1965, health spending in America, as a % of GDP, was 5%. In 2010 it was 18%. It steadily rose in the intervening years. If the rising trend in obesity is not halted and reversed, it will continue to consume an increasing % of GDP as the years go by. It is my view that the rising trend of obesity in this country will not be halted and reversed until there is a MASSIVE education campaign that teaches people, children and adults alike, about nutrition, healthy eating and the need to lead a physically active lifestyle to live a healthy life. I think that the type of information found in the following two links needs to be at the core of such a campaign.
http://www.fatburninganswers.com/informative-articles/fat-burning-nutrition-facts
http://www.fatburninganswers.com/informative-articles/fat-burning-diet
I think that it requires a campaign or the order of magnitude of the anti smoking campaign.
Jay - September 22, 2011