#Children in the #local #Islands are much #happier More and more #children today in Male city have less and less contact with the natural world. And this is having a huge impact on their #health and #development. a big majority play indoors more often than out. - You can't really blame them: if, like 64% of kids today, played outside less than once a week, or were one of the 28% who haven't been on a walk in the last year, and what percentage in maldives doesn't know how to #swim? and the 20% who have never once climbed a tree. The distance our kids stray from home on their own has shrunk by 90% since the 80s; 43% of adults think a child shouldn't play outdoors unsupervised until the age of 14. More children are now admitted to hospitals for injuries incurred falling out of bed than falling out of trees. Does any of this matter? In an age of cable #TV, #Tablets, #Facebook, #YouTube & #online #gaming. Well, it obviously can't do any harm to know a bit about the natural world beyond the #screen and the front door. And if, as a result of that, you develop a love for nature, you may care something for its survival, which is probably no bad thing. - But a growing body of evidence is starting to show that it's not so much what children know about nature that's important, as what happens to them when they are in nature (and not just in it, but in it by themselves, without grownups). Respectable scientists – doctors, mental health experts, educationalists, sociologists – are beginning to suggest that when kids stop going out into the natural world to play, it can affect not just their development as individuals, but society as a whole. Shots by @RamonKamaldeen #RamonKamaldeen #VisitMaldives