The Reading Room

A while back I wrote about new research that showed that children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) actually needed to move in order to think deeply and concentrate. This was quite contrary to the popular belief that ADHD kids had to be still in order to be productive and offered some important insights into how to manage ADHD within the classroom and at home.

Recently I came across another study from the University of Illinois that showed that taking an ADHD child for a walk in nature increased concentration to level the same or greater than standard medication.
The study, conducted by child environment and behavior experts, Andrea Faber Taylor and Frances E. Kuo, took unmedicated ADHD children on walks, all similar in nature except for setting. One walk was particularly "green" / nature-orientated and the two, less so.  

The children took the walks in different orders - some did the "green" walk first; others took it second or last. After each walk, an experimenter, who didn't know which walk the child had been on, tested their attention using a common neurocognitive test called Digit Span Backwards. Digit span is a common measure of short-term memory, requiring strong concentration. In the test, a series of numbers were said aloud by the experimenter and the child had to recite them backwards. It's a test in which practice doesn't actually make you do better.

A Walk in the Park

When the scores on the tests were compared, it was clear that the children performed better after the walk in the park than on the walks in the downtown or the neighborhood area. Their concentration improved the most in the greenest space.
What is significant about the study is that it showed for the first time that physical environment with ADHD kids matters.  Their symptoms improved in a greener environment.  Unfortunately, it wasn't clear whether it was the grass, trees and shrubs, or the mere lack of buildings, or both that had the greatest impact. And it also wasn't clear whether how long the effects of a dose of nature lasted.

Fresh Air a Day

According to Faber Taylor, the findings from the small study match with findings from other national studies, which show that natural settings improve attention for children of all ages, community sizes, both with and without hyperactivity.

"Some of the previous survey research suggests a relationship between children who regularly play in green spaces and how severe their symptoms are. Children who have regular exposure to green spaces have milder symptoms overall," said Kuo.

While not conclusive, there are indications that regular doses of nature, even the same 'green' space, yield long term benefits.  There are the studies, but also independent testimonials from parents themselves have reported the same finding.
Research, unfortunately, is not advanced enough to give parents a formula on how much time a child should spend outdoors. But Kuo recommends it's worth trying as little as 20 minutes of outdoor exposure every day, as it could potentially buy you an afternoon or a couple of hours to get homework done.

Putting it into Practice

Incorporating outside activity in your child's daily routine is not a hard task, particularly if you already have a green backyard or a neighbourhood park nearby. Even if you don't have those, consider getting them involved in after-school activities that take them outside, such as sport; or picking a daycare which has an outdoor yard; or just taking your child on an outdoors walk.

So if your child is battling to concentrate on homework, read a book or study for a test, it can't hurt to encourage him to play outdoors for a while and see whether you get any results. And in fact, it probably won't hurt you either. "ADHD is just at the far end of attention functioning, but there're plenty of us who fall somewhere close to that end of the continuum," says Taylor.

We all have experienced times when we're mentally fatigued, when we've been less able to focus, do tasks and get easily distracted. And we probably all have also experienced feeling refreshed and more alert after being outdoors.  It's like a reboot for the brain (well in my experience anyway).  And since the evidence suggests that natural settings can benefit everyone, even those not been diagnosed with ADHD, it makes sense to give it a whirl.