Children and Nature

For much of human evolution the natural world was one of the most important contexts of children''s maturation. Indeed the experience of nature was and still may be a critical component of human physical emotional intellectual and even moral development. Yet scientific knowledge of the significance of nature during the different stages of childhood is sparse. This book provides scientific investigations and thought-provoking essays on children and nature.Children and Nature incorporates research from cognitive science developmental psychology ecology education environmental studies evolutionary psychology political science primatology psychiatry and social psychology. The authors examine the evolutionary significance of nature during childhood; the formation of children''s conceptions values and sympathies toward the natural world; how contact with nature affects children''s physical and mental development; and the educational and political consequences of the weakened childhood experience of nature in modern society.