The importance of living in contact with the nature during early development
A recent multidisciplinary longitudinal study developed in the University of British Columbia, Canada showed that children who grow up in areas with higher access to greenspace show higher cognitive development1.
The study evaluated 27,372 children who attended kindergarten between 2005 and 2011 in Vancouver. The evaluation of the development was obtained from the application of the Early Development Instrument to educators. Teachers filled the questionnaire about each child they have known at least for 6 months in kindergarten. The instrument asks about demographic information and 103 binary and Likert scale items in five domains: (1) physical health and wellbeing; (2) social competence; (3) emotional maturity; (4) language and cognitive development; and (5) communication skills and general knowledge. The total score across all domains was compared across children.
The authors also measured the extension of greenspace around each child’s residence from birth to five years of age and quantified the traffic-related air pollution and community noise to which each child was exposed in the same period of observation.
The results showed that, although all children exhibited a typically developing curve, a higher percentage of vegetation was associated with higher score in the Early Development Instrument. Moreover, the analysis of this association between greenspace and early development was somehow explained by the level of pollution associated to traffic and environmental noise, which surrounded the children habitat.
The study demonstrates the long-term beneficious effects of living in clean environments. Green spaces provide more clean air and more quiet environment for child development.
These data highlight the crucial role of green spaces in health and cognitive development at early age, and may serve as a science-based recommendation to parents to dedicate time in nature with their children, and also may serve as an input for authorities and policy makers when called to plan the urban aspects of their cities.
References
Jarvis, I., Davis, Z., Sbihi, H., Brauer, M., Czekajlo, A., Davies, H. W., Gergel, S. E., Guhn, M., Jerrett, M., Koehoorn, M., Oberlander, T. F., Su, J., & van den Bosch, M. (2021). Assessing the association between lifetime exposure to greenspace and early childhood development and the mediation effects of air pollution and noise in Canada: a population-based birth cohort study. The Lancet. Planetary health, 5(10), e709–e717. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00235-7