3 Steps to Boost Your Child’s Outdoor Time — And Health

 Pooja S. Tandon and Kyle Yasuda · Seattle Times · December 28, 2018

Co-authored by Dr. Pooja S. Tandon, Nature and Health researcher

Kids today spend less time outside than any previous generation. That’s probably not a surprise — we live in a world filled with big screens, small screens, screens that attach to your wrist and screens that attach to your face. When combined with factors like busy lifestyles, shrinking access to natural spaces and parks, schools cutting opportunities for outdoor play, and neighborhoods that may not feel safe, it’s no wonder most children fall well short of the daily recommendation of 60 minutes of outdoor play.

As parents, we understand why that can feel like an impossibly high bar. But it’s a bar worth clearing. Outdoor play is correlated with physical activity, improved motor skills, better vision and vitamin D levels — health benefits that have made outdoor play, especially in natural surroundings, a focus for programs like the University of Washington EarthLab, which brings together researchers and practitioners to further understand the impacts of nature on human health.

But systemic changes can be years in the making, so what can well-meaning but busy parents do now?