Summit County Citizens Voice

Access to outdoor play has huge health benefits for youth

A Colorado youngster enjoys some wide open spaces around Dillon Reservoir.

By Bob Berwyn

SUMMIT COUNTY — Educators and health experts agree that the rapid increase in the use of electronic media among youth creates potential health risks as kids spend less time in active outdoor play.

On average, youngsters spend an astounding 7.5 hours per day with electronics and computer games, Kaiser Permanente’s Sandra Hoyt Stenmark said Monday in Breckenridge at a national conference of recreation  resource planners.

“If they’re engaged with their media, they’re probably not outside in unstructured play,” Hoyt Stenmark said, adding that we’re potentially raising a generation that’s “disconnected from the land, doesn’t know where their food comes from … and doesn’t know why environmental preservation is important.”

Her remarks came at one of the opening sessions of the conference, where the planners and land managers will focus in part on how to re-weave an outdoor culture into the fabric of American life. Early remarks outlined some of the negative health impacts of sedentary indoor lifestyles, including an alarming increase in child obesity that leads to a host of associated health problems. (more…)

Filed under: Breckenridge, Colorado, Colorado Division of Wildlife, Colorado State Parks, recreation, Summit County Colorado | Tagged: Breckenridge news, Colorado, Colorado Department of Natural Resources, Colorado State Parks, Dan Gibbs, Dean Winstanley, getting kids outdoors, Kaiser Permanente, outdoor planning, public lands, recreation planning, s, Steve Sherwood, Summit County Colorado, Summit County News, United States, youth health issues | Leave a Comment »