Being in green spaces is good for your health and overall well-being. That’s because nature is healing for people of all ages, especially children. Green spaces are actually better for children’s development and well-being than previously thought.

Primary schools are really on the right track if they children in the fresh air play, reported The guardThat’s because exposure to green spaces can reduce behavioral problems and contribute to better learning. Teachers have known this for generations, and now scientists are discovering it too.

Science is catching on
There is growing scientific evidence of the physical and mental benefits of green spaces for children. The first study to make the connection was published in 2015 and investigated the connection between green spaces and cognitive development in primary school children. It was based on studying 2,593 schoolchildren in Barcelona, ​​Spain, who were in second through fourth grade.

The children’s cognitive development was assessed over 12 months. The children exposed to a large amount of greenery – this was assessed using satellite images – showed improvements in cognitive tests, reported The Washington Post.

“The children who had more green (space) around the school, we saw better cognitive development, so they did better on these tests,” Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, a researcher at the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology in Barcelona and one of the study’s authors, told The Washington Post. “It was about a five percent difference over the time period. That’s an amount that may sound small, but “at a population level, this can have huge effects,” Mark Nieuwenhuijsen added.

A more recent study from Belgium also recognized that children’s exposure to greenery promotes cognitive development, but went one step further and concluded that children who grew up in greener areas had higher IQs and far fewer behavioral problems.

What does this mean for children of different ages?
The benefits varied depending on the age of the children. UNICEF discussion paper identified a number of these differences. Up to the age of six, for example, proven benefits include improved motor coordination, better balance and better sleep quality.

For teens, the benefits include improved attention, better stress managementand more enthusiasm for learning. The article concluded that all children benefit from green spaces.

What this means, Eirini Flouri, a professor of developmental psychology at University College London, told The Guardian, is that children should spend a minimum amount of time in areas with greenery. But she cautions that the area should be safe, not have too much pollution or noise, and should be visually appealing to the children.

This translates into more trees and shrubs being planted near schools and parks, and it gets children spending more time outdoors, surrounded by nature. It’s good for their bodies and minds.

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