Well, duh, the boy said in so many words.

"I like to play indoors 'cause that's where all the outlets are," the boy said.

Whatever the cause - urbanization, parental fear, overly structured childhoods, society's technological bent - Louv believes too few children today have the opportunity to interact with nature and that has disastrous consequences.

Louv is a child advocate and author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder.

Nature-deficit disorder?

He admits it is a concocted buzzword, not a real diagnosis. But Louv defends the term as aptly describing what he considers real costs - for children, adults, families and communities - of being alienated from nature: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties and higher rates of physical and emotional illness.

"Never before in history have kids been so separated from nature," says Louv, who will discuss his book at 7 p.m. Tuesday at The King's English, 1511 S. 1500 East, Salt Lake City. "The irony is we're also, more than at any time in history, finally learning how direct involvement with nature is important to child development."

Louv has found his message resonates with residents of rural as well as urban areas.

"There are some places where children still have a lot more interaction with nature, but access is only one of several reasons for this disconnect," he says.

Utah may be like Portland, Ore., in that regard: The opportunities are there, Louv says, but other obstacles get in the way.

For many children, natural spaces they can roam freely are nonexistent. Most playgrounds and even neighborhoods follow sterile and structured designs, often aimed at minimizing litigation. Debates over open space often are won by developers: Sandy's Wal-Mart vs. park debate earlier this year is an example.

Kids are more likely to be able to identify Pokemon characters than the trees and insects found in their front yards. Many schools have replaced recess with rote learning time and after-school hours are filled with homework and adult-supervised activities.

And from stranger danger to West Nile virus, the outdoors is portrayed as a scary place, one many parents are unwilling to let their children roam. Louv cites one study that found between 1970 and 1990, the area children were allowed to roam near their homes had shrunk to a ninth of what it had been.

"Only the bogeyman lives in the woods," Louv says of these scary world portrayals. Nature is rarely associated with joy in the public forum.

Yet, numerous studies show interaction with nature can be therapeutic - such research has validated Utah's spot as a headquarters for wilderness therapy programs for troubled teens. The great outdoors is billed as an antidote for everything from stress to low self-esteem to depression.

And nature as creative inspiration is unquestioned, the realm of poets, painters, filmmakers.

But Louv believes society gives short shrift to nature's importance for children's well-being and development, quoting one researcher who says it is as critical as "good nutrition and adequate sleep."

"There is almost a societal blindspot to this that has developed within the past two decades," says Louv.

Louv says research shows nature experiences can have a positive effect on attention-deficit disorder as well as confidence, test scores, critical thinking and decision making.

One childhood expert says Louv is just putting a new spin on an old worry.

The fear that children were not getting enough exposure to nature surfaced at the beginning of the 20th century, with the spread of cities and decline of family farms, says Steven Mintz, the John and Rebecca Moores professor of history at the University of Houston and author of Huck's Raft: A History of American Childhood.

Mintz says those fears drove creation of such groups as the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, the Campfire Girls and the development of summer camps. True, they were "very structured and adult-directed and not what that author wants," Mintz says. But, he adds, "we're not the first to realize kids are losing contact with nature."

Every generation, he says, fears that life quality has diminished for following generations and looks for causes. Too much screentime is being vilified the same way rock 'n' roll once was.

And lack of access to nature is just the latest explanation offered for complex social problems such as the rise in ADD and childhood obesity.

"It is important for parents to remember that by most measures, most kids are doing better today than any previous generation ever in history," says Mintz. "We fixate on kids when the problem is more general. It's not like adults are out basking in nature day by day, and we set the most powerful examples for children. Work-obsessed, middle-class parents should be the last to complain kids aren't out getting exercise."

Still, Mintz acknowledges the environment in which kids are growing up has changed, as has our notion of childhood - a view captured in the title of his book, a lament about the disappearance of the Huck Finn-style childhood.

"The older notion of childhood in America was it should be a moratorium from the responsibilities of adulthood, that childhood is at best, a time of risk, experimentation and freedom," Mintz says.

Now, childhood is overshadowed by adulthood aspirations - a time to hone skills and talents that carry children into and through their futures. Schools are rigorous, homework is demanding and whatever time is left over is scheduled to the minute.

On that, the two authors may agree.

Louv, a columnist for the San Diego Union-Tribune, believes the move away from nature has accelerated, and societal trends such as the way neighborhoods and cities are designed and regulated, have led to the "criminalization of natural play."

Louv's aim is to bring the problem into focus and be part of spurring a back-to-nature movement in families and cities, something he says requires intentional actions.

Green urbanism, city designs that incorporate natural spaces, is one way to counteract the trend, he says, and is beginning to catch on in some parts of the country.

One simple idea for families: leave a part of the back yard rough so kids can build forts and dig holes and hunt for bugs there.

For Utah parents, the challenge may be making it a priority to expose their children to nature experiences in the state's canyon, forest, desert and river settings.

"I'm not pretending that the 1950s are going to come back," says Louv, or that parents' fears, however unwarranted, are going to fade away.

But there has to be purposeful effort to rethink the relationships children are allowed to have with nature, he says.

"What we're really talking about is how human beings relate in the long term to nature, the earth and how we take care of it," Louv says.

brooke@sltrib.com

* E-mail your thoughts on this article to the Living editor at livingeditor@sltrib.com

Playing in a natural setting can:

* Provide multi-sensory experiences.

* Allow opportunities for experiential learning and support natural learning cycles.

* Stimulate the imagination and creativity in boundless ways.

* Enhance self-esteem.

* Offer children a feeling of "intense peace."

* Center children in the environment where they live.

* Help children understand natural systems.

* Teach about cycles and processes and the regenerative power of nature.

- Source: The Natural Learning Initiative at

North Carolina State University's College of Design, http://www.naturalearning.org