Where The Wild Things Are: Voices Of Children

Where the Wild Things Are

Sociology recently developed as a discipline to consider the voices of children. Many sociologists who do use children’s voices and perspective understand the importance of children and childhood as a social agent. In society, adults create children’s leisure activities, such as parks. Parks, are man made spaces where children are allowed to play, but sociologically speaking, parks are actually spaces where regulated play occurs; an adult invention. Research shows that wild spaces as play spaces are much more beneficial for children in terms of neural, physical, social, and physiological development. In addition, children seem to prefer these spaces much more as well. This paper will examine the reasons for including

Children’s social development is directly affected by wild spaces. Charlton and House emphasize the importance of children outdoor play. The authors say that the health of the child and the neural development are significantly enhanced when the child is able to explore the wild space. They say that, “[being] in charge of their own activity in a testing environment raises confidence and self-esteem, encouraging perseverance and developing resilience” (Charlton and House). Wild spaces also provide psychological development. Similarly Pretty (_____) in her study had 30 people do activities for a month which she called the “green exercise”. These exercises related to common active activities, such as walking, biking, fishing etc. In her study, she monitored the mental side effects of being in the green space and her findings suggest that people’s mood and self-esteem changed considerably when in green spaces. This shows the importance the “green space” has on the mind, and emphasizes the important of wild spaces on developing minds. Furthermore, wild spaces enhance memory. Devinder (2015) examined the effects of green spaces in school children. The study collected data on memory to see if memory enhanced over time when exposed to wild spaces. The results suggested that children’s memory skills increase by 22.8% and that their superior memory increased by 15.2%. With this in mind, it is clear that memory development is considerably better developed in the wild spaces compared to a classroom. As a final point, wild spaces enhance well being and reduce obesity. Thompson et al. (2011). People who experience outdoors life and perform exercise outside promote well being. Thompson shows that people have a positive impact on well being if they perform exercise in wild spaces compared to an indoor