Nature Helps ADHD

The mental benefits of time out in nature cannot be overstated.  I wrote yesterday about how Ansel Adams was kicked out of school at age 7 for hyperactivity and found calm and a career out of doors.  We have found that to be true in our family, as well.  

One of the most wonderful things about nature is that, unlike electronic media, which is flat, nature is layered.  There are layers of awareness in our five senses and if one layer is too much, we have the option of moving into another layer.  Think about the layers of the forest.  There is the canopy, the heights.  Then there is the background - background noise of trees and wind and animals, background greenery, background topography.  In the foreground there are the noises of animals just off the path, flowers right there, the rock or stump to step over next.  But, if one sits still, there is all of that, plus the very close foreground of moss, bugs and grass.  Living in the country, we can experience that exact layering, but living in Chicago we had the same experience at Lincoln Park or on the lakefront of Lake Michigan, as my children had in their backyard in the suburbs.  

For ADHD children, who tend to be very self-involved, nature takes a child out of himself.  There is so much out there that they can choose to focus on that their self-involvement fades.  

We have two children who have been noticeably ADHD.  The first child was Mick.  We used to joke that he could get distracted in an empty, white room.  He would switch from subtraction to addition in the middle of a math problem because he daydreamed his way through it and lost track.  We didn't require him to sit on a chair while doing school, but he did have to TOUCH the chair.  But, he discovered hunting when he was 14 years old.  He learned to sit in the woods for hours.  He is now more capable of being still than any person I know.  

Miriam was our other ADHD child.  She was more of the classic type of hyperactivity combined with impulse control.  She was already angry by the time she was four.  Then she started ballet and she smiled again.  She learned to ride a bike and she was set free.  She gets unhappy and can get downright angry when she is confined to a chair.  She needs exercise and the best place for her to get it is outdoors.  She jumps on the trampoline and rides her bike into town (three miles one way), and goes swimming in the summertime.  But, what is the best for her is working with the animals.  Whether she is grooming and saddling horses and riding or cleaning the alpaca barn or feeding cats, she is at her most content.  Many ADHD kids can feel that they are being yelled at and criticized all the time.  The opportunity to work, be productive and contribute, while using their bodies, can add so much to their self-image, which actually falls under the emotional benefits.  However, that contentment allows both Mick, who is an honors engineering student at UW Platteville, and Miriam, who is in Algebra at the age of 12, to focus on their studies.    

It's Fall!  My favorite time of year!  I always get motivated in the fall.  But what I love most about the fall is the world outside.  Nature and all its possibilities surrounds us in the fall with the cooling temperatures and the harvest. 

Nature is God's gift to us.  Everything that is in this world can be used by and for man, even the things that most of us get annoyed by, like dandelions.  Dandelions used to be called the king of herbs - it was eaten!  As with many greens, you have to eat them before the flowers show up or they get bitter.  But the study of nature in all its facets gives your family so many gifts.  Over my next few blogs, I will be expanding on the following subjects:

A boy back at the turn of the 20th century was permanently expelled from school because of his hyperactivity.  He was seven.  His parents found that he calmed down when they took him out in nature.  He found a career in nature photography.  His name was Ansel Adams, certainly the only photographer I could name, I don't know about you.  Spending time in nature, whether working, walking or watching has proven to be a most effective therapy for ADHD.  

Walking in an apple orchard, the state park or the desert - Any walking over uneven surfaces is better physical training in strengthening the core muscles and improving balance than soccer practice.

Picking apples or pumpkins and making apple sauce - Making your own food from produce you have gathered gives us a true appreciation of the gifts God has given us.  If you live in the city, buying a few extra quarts of strawberries and making jam will do the same thing.

Taking care of and observing animals - Children learn about stewardship of nature from spending time with pets, going to a zoo, birdwatching, and the like.

Gardening - Whether your family farms, you weed a suburban flower bed, or you are raising radishes in your apartment window, the study of plants in real life aids in the study of biology later, teaches stewardship to children, and gratitude to God.

The weather - Everybody has weather.  Even in Los Angeles, you can observe clouds and a homemade barometer works in a high rise apartment.  Everybody is subject to the weather and, as the Bible says, "He makes it to rain on the just and the unjust."

The heavens - Whether you can go outside and observe the changing of the moon phases, stars and planets, or if the only star you can see is a satellite looking at you, and you look at celestial  bodies via the Internet, God has given them to us for signs and seasons and they unite the earth, because we all have the same stars.

Rocks - What kid doesn't like to collect pretty rocks?  But what a story they can tell and what we can't do with them!  What a gift from God!

Admiring the sky - No matter where you live, city, suburb or country, everybody has a sky.  Lying in my bed on State Street in Chicago, I would sometimes be awakened by the moon!  It still happens, though I can only see one yard light from anywhere in my house, now. 

Stay tuned as we go through these subjects and you see the benefits of studying nature and how it can help your child, your family and your school.