In recent years, a new nature movement has emerged that includes traditional conservation and sustainability, but gives special attention to the right of every child to the benefits that nature brings to children’s physical and mental health and their ability to learn and create. This movement is based on a growing body of scientific evidence—most of it correlative, because research in this arena is relatively new (and overdue), but it all points in the same direction.
As a result, families are joining other families to get their kids outdoors. Regional campaigns have emerged in cities and states in North America and overseas, and many of the nation’s mayors are taking action. In education, teachers are creating school gardens and championing nature-based approaches. Mental health professionals are weaving nature into their practices. Within the health care community, a growing number of pediatricians have begun to prescribe nature time to the families they serve.
In Balanced and Barefoot, Angela Hanscom, a pediatric occupational therapist, makes a passionate case that nature play is necessary for a truly balanced childhood. Correctly, she does not claim that nature play is a panacea, or necessarily a replacement for other therapies, but that it can be a strong component in prevention and therapy. And for some children, it can make all the difference. As Angela eloquently illustrates, too many of today’s children miss out on the full sensory richness offered beyond the walls of a classroom or home. Manageable risk and independent, imaginative play are essential not only to physical health but to the development of self-directed young minds.
For many families and teachers, getting children outside and active is not as simple as it might seem. Fear of strangers (in some neighborhoods fully justified, in other neighborhoods not so much), along with poor urban design, inaccessible parks, and the dominance of electronics—all of these barriers and more are very real. But this book offers rich advice on how parents and professionals can overcome them—in health, education, and the creation of built environments. Balanced and Barefoot will be immensely useful to parents and teachers, pediatricians and pediatric occupational therapists, architects and play space designers, and many others.
Angela Hanscom is a powerful voice for balance.
—Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, The Nature Principle, and Vitamin N