Why it all Matters
THE NEED
The Dangers of Unchecked Childhood Stress
Countless studies are now showing that childhood stress results in a myriad of negative life-long outcomes for individuals. Camp POV aims to help children develop resiliency to stress while using nature-based learning as a backdrop.
Highlighting A Major culprit of childhood stress
How Kids Spend Time - Screen Time vs. Green Time
A typical child in America spends an astounding 78x as many hours with screens than they do playing outside.
- The typical kid in America spends…
- Less than 40 minutes per week outdoors
- Only 4-7 minutes per day of unstructured outdoor play (independent outdoor play has been proven to increase youth’s ability to work things out for themselves AND self-confidence, two all-important things needed for adult happiness)
- Over 90+% of their time indoors
- About 52 hours per week using electronics and screens
- Lower-income teens and tweens spend 2 hours/day more screen time than their more affluent peers. This is despite higher-income kids having universally greater ownership of all matter of screens, from smartphones to computers to TVs, according to the study.
- Families are struggling to get outside too – in 2018, only less than 20% of Americans participated in an outdoor recreational activity at least once per week, and children went on 15% fewer outings than they did even six years earlier.
- Greater than 70% of low-income communities and communities of color in the contiguous US live in nature-deprived areas, with little access to the health benefits of natural spaces.
SIDE NOTE – You may ask – “Why are we focusing on screens?” Because it’s one of the largest, unchecked stressors for kids in America today. But really we want to just help any stressed out kid, no matter the cause.
The consequences
The State of Youth Mental & Physical Health in America
Approximately 1 out of every 5 kids between 3-17 meet the criteria for an anxiety disorder. In fact, nearly 1 out of every 3 teenagers has been diagnosed*. About a quarter of teens who reported 4+ hours of daily screen time (about HALF of all teens) experienced anxiety or depression symptoms**. Nearly 1 in 5 youth ages 6-17 have obesity, a trend directly exacerbated by excessive screen time***.
Humans (and especially kids) are still largely dialed into the stimulation experienced in nature, not screens. Neural structures can take millions of years to evolve, not one or two generations.
Simply put, screens and the amount of stimulation our kids experience is simply not at the speed of their physiological baselines (whereas outdoor play is). Kids’ bodies and brains simply have not yet evolved to interact and absorb the information and stimulation of excessive screen media — especially while their brains are still developing. Children are particularly even less prepared, trained, and able to cope with the amount of screen time and stimulation they experience. And their stress-monitoring systems overreact. Meanwhile, they are spending less and less time outside and being active.
Some of the other major causes of youth anxiety include overprotective parenting, brain chemistry, family conflict, and bullying — all of which are (at minimum) not aided by screen time and lack of independent outdoor play.
The result? Increased screen time and decreased outdoor play has resulted in a direct correlation in the rise of youth obesity, anxiety, and depression. Irrespective of this, however – overall anxiety has been steeply on the rise for kids in the last two decades. This trend is something that we at Camp can’t ignore.
The Impact on Kids' Repeated Responses to Stress
Toxic stress (big, ongoing stressors that don't quit -- like ongoing, excessive screen time) stunts brain development, has the potential to change your child’s brain chemistry, and even alter gene expression (the wiring of the brain — with genes being turned on and off). It also makes it hard for kids to pay attention and lowers their immune systems.
And life-long repercussions can ensue when kids are exposed to big stress on an ongoing basis.
There is increasing evidence that repeated activation of the stress response early in life can literally inhibit children’s ability to develop “resiliency”…
- Kids experiencing ongoing childhood stress have much higher lifelong rates of poverty, difficulty with financial management, reduced life opportunities, food and housing insecurity, and intergenerational trauma.
- Adults that experienced pervasive childhood stressors have increased likelihood of obesity, cardiovascular disease, cancer, digestive issues like IBS/Crohn’s disease, anxiety, depression, incarceration, divorce, unemployment, and a lack of health insurance.
Why MINDFULNESS?
5 Ways MINDFULESS Rewires Brains & Increases Stress Resiliency
Re-wiring kids' brains and strengthening their parasympathetic systems are critical to counter the effects that the now normal excessive screen time has on youth. Mindfulness is one of the TOP tools to achieve this.
Mindfulness is one of the TOP tools we have to arm and strengthen kids’ parasympathetic systems — their built-in antidote to stress.
Because Psychology Today can explain how mindfulness improves neuroplasticity and increases stress resiliency better than we can…
1. Mindfulness improves our brain chemistry – staying calm and helping us experience and enjoy positive emotions.
2. Mindfulness changes our fear and stress response by shrinking the amygdala — the part of the brain that sets the tone for the stress response. A smaller amygdala is correlated with a reduced fear response, increased calmness, better management of anxiety, and a feeling of well-being.
3. Mindfulness helps us stay connected to the present moment by helping harness our ability to shift and focus our attention on our bodily sensations. It also helps us regulate the emotional responses associated with those physical sensations.
4. Mindfulness facilitates improved learning, memory, and stress management.
5. Mindfulness helps with brain healing, improve emotional regulation and mental fatigue, and help regulate pain.
Why nature?
NATURE Does Help Combat Stress & Build Resiliency in Youth
Evidence suggests that getting kids back outdoors could modestly help reverse mental-health trends in the country, with time-in-nature linked to a wealth of physical and mental health benefits. This includes reducing physical stressors (heat, noise, pollution), providing healthy stimuli (sights, sounds, smells) that reduce stress and calm the nervous system, and providing spaces for physical activity, self-reflection, and social interaction.
THE IMPACT of camp
Positive Short-Term Benefits of Camp
Camp Point of View aims to help kids fall in love with nature and have fun. To see it as a place of respite and awe and wellbeing. Empower them to develop life-long stress resiliency skills while they do it. And to maybe learn a little biological science so they understand what is happening and how they can become a leader in their own body’s wellbeing. Yep, we’re turning the tables and gamifying mindfulness with the preventative medicine of nature.
If we can help one child at a time develop resiliency to stress, while using nature-based learning as a backdrop, then we are paying it forward ten-fold. We are taking the “Butterfly Effect” to a whole new level.
Some of the benefits of our programs include:
Preventative Medicine - Pre-Emptively Combating Screens' Effect on Kids
- Gaining Self-Confidence Building a Life-Long Relationship with Nature – the Environment Their Brains are Wired to Engage With
- Learning Techniques that Both Rewire and Strengthen the Future Resiliency of Kids’ Brains Against Screen Time (screens aren’t going away anytime soon, so its up to us to help our kids adapt , evolve, and be better prepared)
Enhance Attention & Engagement
- Increasing Focus and Attention
- Decreasing ADHD Symptoms
- Imbuing Impulse Control & Lessening Disruptive Behavior
Improve Mental Wellbeing
- Shrinking Anxiety & Depression Levels
- Increased Ability to Self-Regulate Emotional Responses
- Assisting with Grounding One’s Self Mentally
- Improving Self Esteem
- Building Stress Resiliency — a KEY Capability Warding Off a Multitude of Life-Long Issues
- Empowering Kids to Better Connect with Others
Strengthen Physical Wellbeing
- Avoiding Harmful Short and Long-term Physical Effects of Cortisol Release (by teaching techniques that trigger the parasympathetic system to shortchange a body’s stress biological response)
- Getting Exercise — Helping Learn New Ways It Can Be Fun
- Losing Weight & Increasing Overall Healthiness
Achieve Better Academic Performance By Learning In Natural Environments
- Boosting Performance in School
- Enhancing Creativity, Critical Thinking, and Problem Solving
Positive Life-Long Benefits of Camp
Achieve Better Academic Performance By Learning In Natural Environments
Camp will first and foremost help kids better love and enjoy nature. Our programming also aims to empower kids to adopt fundamentally necessary stress-resiliency skills – so that when they have adversity, they deal with it in an effective manner. This, in turn, will empower them to be more resilient when being faced with stressful situations throughout the rest of their lives.
We believe our programming will, in essence, manifest in the butterfly effect – where kids’ stress resiliency skills learned at camp will have the added benefits of…
- Kids having more fun!!!
- When kids do these fun activities in their daily lives outside of Camp they will work on avoiding negative outcomes – both in the short and long-term
- Kids play with kids – there is a stickiness to fun!!! When Camp kids play with other kids using their new, everyday nature/de-stressing skills and knowledge, more and more kids have the potential to grow up to being healthier, happier, and more personally successful throughout their lives