ADHD children: what role does the outdoor environment play into alleviating or worsening their symptoms? A comparison of three settings.

Attention is essential to development and healthy life. Unfortunately, a growing number of school children suffer of chronic attention deficit such as the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Most literature is focused on the role that social environment plays in child development whereas scarce attention is paid on the physical environment, both built and natural. METHOD We present two studies with the aim of evaluating how a walk in three different outdoor environments (natural, built-historical, built-modern) may affect children with ADHD (Study 1) and the possible correlation between symptoms’ severity and their general frequency of contact with Nature (Study 2). RESULTS In Study 1, some preliminary results show better environmental perception in the Nature condition, than in the Standard-urban condition and the Historical-urban condition and better attention only in the natural context. In Study 2, we expect a positive correlation between Frequency of Contact with Nature, perceived restorativeness and symptoms severity. DISCUSSION In accordance to previous research, our findings show a great impact of Nature contact on cognitive functioning, among other benefits. The absence of costs, virtually, and side effects should motivate into applying research outcomes with the aim of improving the quality of life of atypical children.