Plant yourself where language blooms: direct experience of nature changes how parents and children talk about nature

The study investigated the affordances of direct and indirect experience of nature on parent-child talk. Parents and children produced a wider range of nature words when exploring a park (direct experience) than when exploring a thematically-matched indoor visitor center (indirect experience). Parents and children also produced more plant-related nature word types when exploring the park compared to the visitor center. Direct experience of nature provides an optimal context for children to learn the language of nature and consequently to cultivate children's status as custodians of the natural world