Forest Kids

Forest Kids
While the connection is still unclear, this may also unleash the
neurotransmitters known as endorphins, providing another mood
booster.
What it suggests, he says, is that nature “is like a little drop of
morphine for the brain.”
Other scans have revealed that natural settings light up the anterior
cingulate and insula, which are key to empathy.
“In all of my teaching, I’ve never had a class that’s been such a
community,” says Lockerbie, who has taught for eight years, including
at a reserve in northern B.C. and a forest school in England
for one summer.
Her students watch out for one another and work as a team.
From the outset, the teachers have emphasized respect, sharing
and kindness, both for safety in the outdoors and to create a positive
learning environment.
But based on the brain scans, could nature somehow be playing
a role when young Scarlett stops to wait for Alex as he rests on the
edge of the trail? Or when one child praises another’s drawing, or
extends a hand to a nervous classmate to help her onto a log?
In some ways, the things that aren’t going on in a child’s brain
when they’re immersed in the outdoors are just as important.
Take the amygdala, which plays a key role in emotions like fear.
Scans have shown that this brain region is more active among people
in urban settings than those in nature, which can lead to higher
anxiety and impulsive behaviour.
In the forest, children aren’t subject to the sensory overload that
bombards them at, say, a shopping mall or even in a noisy, active
classroom. That means they expend less energy filtering out information
they don’t need. And that process of putting the brakes on
can be mentally taxing as well as distracting.
But when kids are fully engaged without even realizing it, it’s efficient
for their brains and good for mental health, says psychiatrist
29