nature-deficit disorder

plural nature-deficit disorders · alternative nature deficit disorder

1. countableuncountablehuman sciencesA disputed class of behavioural problems in modern children, ascribed to the fact that they spend little time outdoors.First known use 2005.

   Nature-deficit disorder severely hampers, if not fully blocks, development of environmental literacy. Environmental communicators, educators and interpreters talk about their work as an 'antidote' or 'cure' for nature-deficit disorder.

   2010, Richard R. Jurin, Donny Roush, Jeff Danter, “Developing Your Environmental Literacy”, in Environmental Communication: Skills and Principles for Natural Resource Managers, Scientists, and Engineers, 2nd edition, Dordrecht: Springer, →DOI, →ISBN, page 49

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   By its broadest interpretation, nature-deficit disorder is an atrophied awareness, a diminished ability to find meaning in life that surrounds us, whatever form it takes. This shrinkage of our lives has a direct impact on our physical, mental, and societal health. However, not only can nature-deficit disorder be reversed, but our lives can be vastly enriched through our relationship with nature, beginning with our senses.

   2011, Richard Louv, “Singing for Bears”, in The Nature Principle: Reconnecting with Life in a Virtual Age, New York, N.Y.: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, →ISBN, page 11

   So, what is nature deficit disorder? The highly contentious phrase comes from the journalist Richard Louv whose Last Child in the Woods became a rare example of a broadly ‘educational’ international bestseller on children’s relationship with the natural world. Louv argues that trapped within a society full of time constraints and technological advancements, children are losing touch with nature. Louv provocatively describes this condition as ‘nature deficit disorder’, resulting in ‘diminished use of senses, attention difficulties and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses’[…]. […] We reject both the ‘disorder’ and the ‘deficit’ tag for several reasons.

   2015, Simon Boxley, Helen Clarke, Sharon Witt, Victoria Dewey, “Talking with Trolls: A Creative and Critical Engagement with Students' Nature-Naivety”, in Ken Winograd, editor, Critical Literacies and Young Learners: Connecting Classroom Practice to the Common Core, New York, N.Y.; Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 73

   Lest one imagine that this erosive scenario applies only to Indigenous or land-based peoples, one should consider hypotheses of nature-deficit disorders, which holds that loss of time and free play outdoors […] is impending creativity, learning, and spirituality, and enhancing the accumulation of stress, and incurring numerous health and behavioural problems[…].

   2016, Kai M. A. Chan, Terre Satterfield, “Managing Cultural Ecosystem Services for Sustainability”, in Marion Potschin, Roy [H.] Haines-Young, Robert Fish, R. Kerry Turner, editors, Routledge Handbook of Ecosystem Services (Routledge Handbooks), Abingdon, Oxon.; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 349

   Synonyms: NDD