![Being in nature can boost children's mental health. Girl looks up at sky as walks through woods.](https://durablehuman.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Hopeful-girl-featured-image-by-Nappy-featured-Image-500x350.png)
Encouragement, structure, and media management can improve children’s mental health and boost their brain development. So say multiple mental health experts, even as a mental health emergency rages on among U.S. children and teens.
Matt Miles, a high school teacher in suburban Washington, D.C., sees the crisis playing out.
“The number that’s exploding are the kids with moderate day-to-day inability to cope.” They can’t handle the pressure they used to, he says, “like two tests in a day.”
Children’s mental health practitioners are also concerned.