Q & A
Benefits of Nature Education

1. Is there any research on the developmental differences between children aged 0-3 who are in contact with nature than those who are not?  

Here are some sites where you can learn more about the benefits  of nature to younger children. The last site is a good summary of benefits of nature for children of all ages in general.  all aged children.
  1. https://tinkergarten.com/blog/why-babies-learn-in-the-natural-world 
  2. https://www.nct.org.uk/baby-toddler/games-and-play/benefits-outdoor-play-for-children 
  3. https://naturalstart.org/sites/default/files/benefits_of_connecting_children_with_nature_infosheet.pdf 

2. How to help children with autism, ADHD or other learning difficulties through natural education?

The use of natural environments with children, who have challenges in learning or concentration, is highly recommended. There are many studies about how natural environments help children to concentrate and cooperate. I have also witnessed this many times. Quite often, when I worked in the nature school, teachers came to talk to me how some students are behaving in a completely different way than in a classroom. 

There are so many studies about how nature affects children’s development in general and also on concentration. Studies have found that the increase amount of media use, such as internet and tv, and the lack of natural environments have an affect on concentration (Louv 2008). Kaplan and Kaplan (1995) developed a theory, Attention Restoration Theory, which asserts that nature positively enhances an individual’s capacity to maintain attention. They described two kinds of attention: direct attention and effortless attention. Direct attention is intentionally focused attention that requires complex mental processes, such as inferring meaning, completing multi-step tasks or making decisions. Too much directed attention and complex mental processing leads to mental fatigue and lack of concentration. In children this may be observed as restlessness and poor cognitive functioning. Conversely, effortless attention occurs when people are exposed to natural environments. Natural environments offer opportunities for restoration of mental fatigue by evoking feelings of “being away” from the demanding tasks. Many natural features, like observing waves, flow of water, trees, sunset, etc., evoke a response to the natural world that is described as fascination. The beauty and subtleties of nature offer a restorative experience allowing the mental relaxation. One research examined the correlation between exposure to green space in neighborhood, commuting and school environments. The study (Dadvand et al., 2015) claims: “Natural environments including green spaces provides children with unique opportunities such as inciting engagement, risk taking, discovery, creativity, mastery and control, strengthening sense of self, inspiring basic emotional states including sense of wonder, and enhancing psychological restoration, which are suggested to influence positively different aspects of cognitive development.”  Natural environments provide our brains a “break” from overstimulated environment and let them relax. The brain capacity is limited and we need to relax our brains, otherwise we cannot concentrate, learn new things or make good decisions.  

3. How can outdoor learning help children's learning?

Outdoor learning helps children to comprehend the abstract knowledge, because they are doing the activities themselves. People learn better with practical activities where they are able to use the learned knowledge in real environment. This is the reason why outdoor learning is becoming more and more popular. Teachers and other educators have understood that concrete activities help children to store the knowledge and they learn and remember better. For example, in nature school, there were children who had already been with us for one or for a few years. They explained with enthusiasm what they species they found from the sea from the previous years. They remembered surprisingly much. I believe that, if they had only read about those species from a book or watched a documentary, they wouldn’t remember so much. But because they found the species from their normal habitat and observed them, they learned more and remembered that knowledge better.

4. Where can I get more information about outdoor learning?

This website has plenty of information about outdoor learning, if you want to learn more. They have information about concrete practices and also about research.    

https://www.outdoor-learning.org/Good-Practice/Research-Resources/About-Outdoor-Learning

5. How can children learn about emotions management through nature art?

You can use nature art to handle emotions. There are many different methods to so. For example, in the videos in our certified nature educator basic level, you learn a method where children are asked to think how they are feeling today and then visualize that emotion to paper by using natural materials. These kinds of tasks provide children the possibilities to talk about emotions in general. Talking about emotions, naming them, visualizing them with art makes different emotions more familiar. It is important for children to be able to name emotions, like joy, happy, angry, sad, disgust, jealous and so on. When children can name the emotions and have words for them, they are able to recognize those emotions and handle them. Art is used as a tool to being able to talk about emotions. You can, for example, use colors to express emotions, create statues from natural material that represent different emotions and so on.

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