USA Weekend: Nature therapy helps kids with ADHD

**"Alliums" g*@green-logic.com**

Hi, Folks!

Interesting study published in the 3/12/05 issue of USA Weekend that
confirms what St. Gabriel's Hall and the Chester County Juvenile Probation
Office have noted about the ADHD kids they send us to do their community
service -- working in the garden really does help them!

Dorene Pasekoff, Coordinator
St. John's United Church of Christ Organic Community Garden and Labyrinth

A mission of 
St. John's United Church of Christ, 315 Gay Street, Phoenixville, PA  19460

http://www.usaweekend.com/05_issues/050313/050313healthbriefs.html#adhd

ADHD: Nature therapy helps kids 

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Nature helps the 10% of ADHD kids who don't respond to medicine. 
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Green therapy -- exposure to natural settings -- appears to help reduce
symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, say researchers from
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Their study of about 400
boys and girls, ages 5 to 18, assessed the effects of 49 common after-school
and weekend activities on ADHD symptoms. 

In the study, kids who participated in "green outdoor activities" had
significantly reduced symptoms, regardless of geography, urban or rural
environment, diagnosis, age, sex or income group. 

Simple "exposure to ordinary natural settings in the course of common
after-school and weekend activities may be widely effective" for kids who
don't respond to medicine, says Frances E. Kuo, assistant professor of
environmental sciences and lead author of the study, which was published in
"American Journal of Public Health." 

Suggestions for nature treatments: 

-- Find a greener route to and from school, ideally a walk down tree-lined
streets or through a park. 

-- For play, look for green yards and ball fields. 

-- While doing schoolwork indoors, sit near a window that offers at least a
partial nature view. 

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