Green as a stress buffer: experts explain how nature makes children resilient

The sound of wind through the leaves, crawling creatures, a frog under a fallen tree trunk: it sounds like an ordinary Wednesday afternoon after school. According to experts, however, it is anything but ordinary. Spending time in nature creates wonder in children and that helps against stress, anxiety and gloom, scientific research shows.

Scientists say the sense of wonder we find in nature (whether it’s something as big as a solar eclipse or as small as the sun’s brilliance) is a powerful ingredient for children’s mental health and cognitive development. And, secretly, their parents, too.

Child development expert Deborah Farmer Kris calls nature a “buffer.” Not a shield against all that makes life difficult, but a place where children can build resilience. “It’s hard to think of anything more healthy for the body and mind than the wonder of the outdoors,” she says.

Children who regularly spend time in nature experience less stress, are more creative and can concentrate better, according to a white paper from the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley .

Researchers from the Medical College of Wisconsin also found that children in green neighborhoods suffer less from depression and anxiety. A study from the NIH confirmed that young children who live close to parks or forests have fewer psychological problems.

“Our research supports the existing evidence that being in nature is good for children,” said lead researcher Nissa Towe-Goodman. “It also suggests that early childhood is a particularly critical time for exposure to green space.”

In a so-called nature lesson at a Montessori school in the United States, the child development expert saw how simple that wonder can be for children. In the nature lesson, each child takes a sitting mat and they look for their own place in nature. They stay there for ten minutes and give their senses a treat: looking, listening, hearing, smelling and feeling.

Then the children work in pairs to find their 'own' piece of green and make a list of everything they encounter there. "I was reminded that nature is a sensory feast for children who are not yet used to living only in their heads," says Kris.

You don't have to travel to the other side of the world or see bizarre natural phenomena to amaze yourself. A city park already serves as a healthy dose of amazement. And an adult can learn a lot from that.

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