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Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder Paperback – April 10, 2008

by Richard Louv (Author)

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The Book That Launched an International Movement

“An absolute must-read for parents.” —The Boston Globe

“It rivals Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.” —The Cincinnati Enquirer

“I like to play indoors better ’cause that’s where all the electrical outlets are,” reports a fourth grader. But it’s not only computers, television, and video games that are keeping kids inside. It’s also their parents’ fears of traffic, strangers, Lyme disease, and West Nile virus; their schools’ emphasis on more and more homework; their structured schedules; and their lack of access to natural areas. Local governments, neighborhood associations, and even organizations devoted to the outdoors are placing legal and regulatory constraints on many wild spaces, sometimes making natural play a crime.

As children’s connections to nature diminish and the social, psychological, and spiritual implications become apparent, new research shows that nature can offer powerful therapy for such maladies as depression, obesity, and attention deficit disorder. Environment-based education dramatically improves standardized test scores and grade-point averages and develops skills in problem solving, critical thinking, and decision making. Anecdotal evidence strongly suggests that childhood experiences in nature stimulate creativity.

In Last Child in the Woods, Louv talks with parents, children, teachers, scientists, religious leaders, child-development researchers, and environmentalists who recognize the threat and offer solutions. Louv shows us an alternative future, one in which parents help their kids experience the natural world more deeply—and find the joy of family connectedness in the process.

Now includes
A Field Guide with 100 Practical Actions We Can Take
Discussion Points for Book Groups, Classrooms, and Communities
Additional Notes by the Author
New and Updated Research from the U.S. and Abroad

Richard Louv's new book, Our Wild Calling, is available now.

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The Book that Began a Movement

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Editorial Reviews

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From Publishers Weekly

Today's kids are increasingly disconnected from the natural world, says child advocacy expert Louv (Childhood's Future; Fatherlove; etc.), even as research shows that "thoughtful exposure of youngsters to nature can... be a powerful form of therapy for attention-deficit disorder and other maladies." Instead of passing summer months hiking, swimming and telling stories around the campfire, children these days are more likely to attend computer camps or weight-loss camps: as a result, Louv says, they've come to think of nature as more of an abstraction than a reality. Indeed, a 2002 British study reported that eight-year-olds could identify Pokémon characters far more easily than they could name "otter, beetle, and oak tree." Gathering thoughts from parents, teachers, researchers, environmentalists and other concerned parties, Louv argues for a return to an awareness of and appreciation for the natural world. Not only can nature teach kids science and nurture their creativity, he says, nature needs its children: where else will its future stewards come from? Louv's book is a call to action, full of warnings—but also full of ideas for change. Agent, James Levine. (May 20)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Scientific American

Unstructured outdoor play was standard for me as a hyperactive child growing up in the rural Midwest. I fondly recall digging forts, climbing trees and catching frogs without concern for kidnappers or West Nile virus. According to newspaper columnist and child advocate Richard Louv, such carefree days are gone for America’s youth. Boys and girls now live a "denatured childhood," Louv writes in Last Child in the Woods. He cites multiple causes for why children spend less time outdoors and why they have less access to nature: our growing addiction to electronic media, the relinquishment of green spaces to development, parents’ exaggerated fears of natural and human predators, and the threat of lawsuits and vandalism that has prompted community officials to forbid access to their land. Drawing on personal experience and the perspectives of urban planners, educators, naturalists and psychologists, Louv links children’s alienation from nature to attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, stress, depression and anxiety disorders, not to mention childhood obesity. The connections seem tenuous at times, but it is hard not to agree with him based on the acres of anecdotal evidence that he presents. According to Louv, the replacement of open meadows, woods and wetlands by manicured lawns, golf courses and housing developments has led children away from the natural world. What little time they spend outside is on designer playgrounds or fenced yards and is structured, safe and isolating. Such antiseptic spaces provide little opportunity for exploration, imagination or peaceful contemplation. Louv’s idea is not new. Theodore Roosevelt saw a prophylactic dose of nature as a counter to mounting urban malaise in the early 20th century, and others since have expanded on the theme. What Louv adds is a focus on the restorative qualities of nature for children. He recommends that we reacquaint our children and ourselves with nature through hiking, fishing, bird-watching and disorganized, creative play. By doing so, he argues, we may lessen the frequency and severity of emotional and mental ailments and come to recognize the importance of preserving nature. At times Louv seems to conflate physical activity (a game of freeze tag) with nature play (building a tree fort), and it is hard to know which benefits children most. This confusion may be caused by a deficiency in our larger understanding of the role nature plays in a child’s development. At Louv’s prompting, perhaps we will see further inquiry into this matter. In the meantime, parents, educators, therapists and city officials can benefit from taking seriously Louv’s call for a "nature-child reunion."

Jeanne Hamming

“[The] national movement to ‘leave no child inside’ . . . has been the focus of Capitol Hill hearings, state legislative action, grass-roots projects, a U.S. Forest Service initiative to get more children into the woods and a national effort to promote a ‘green hour’ in each day. . . . The increased activism has been partly inspired by a best-selling book, Last Child in the Woods, and its author, Richard Louv.” —The Washington Post

“Last Child in the Woods, which describes a generation so plugged into electronic diversions that it has lost its connection to the natural world, is helping drive a movement quickly flourishing across the nation.” —The Nation’s Health

“This book is an absolute must-read for parents.” —The Boston Globe

“An honest, well-researched and well-written book, . . . the first to give name to an undeniable problem.” —The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“One of the most thought-provoking, well-written books I’ve read in recent memory. It rivals Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.” —The Cincinnati Enquirer

“Important and original. . . . As Louv so eloquently and urgently shows, our mothers were right when they told us, day after day, ‘Go out and play.’” —The Christian Science Monitor

“Last Child in the Woods is the direct descendant and rightful legatee of Rachel Carson’s The Sense of Wonder. But this is not the only thing Richard Louv has in common with Rachel Carson. There is also this: in my opinion, Last Child in the Woods is the most important book published since Silent Spring.” —Robert Michael Pyle, author of Sky Time in Gray’s River

“A single sentence explains why Louv’s book is so important: ‘Our children,’ he writes, ‘are the first generation to be raised without meaningful contact with the natural world.’ This matters, and Last Child in the Woods makes it patently clear why and lays out a path back.” —The Ecologist

“With this scholarly yet practical book, Louv offers solutions today for a healthier, greener tomorrow.” —Washington Post Book World

“The simplest, most profound, and most helpful of any book I have read on the personal and historical situation of our children, and ourselves, as we move into the twenty-first century.” —Thomas Berry, author of The Dream of the Earth

From the Back Cover

In his groundbreaking work about the staggering divide between children and the outdoors, journalist and child advocate Richard Louv directly links the absence of nature in the lives of today's wired generatoin to some of the most disturbing childhood trends: the rise in obesity, attention disorders, and depression. This is the first book to bring together a body of research indicating that direct exposure to nature is essential for healthy childhood development and for the physical and emotional helath of children and adults. More than just raising an alarm, Louv offers practical solutions to heal the broken bond.

About the Author

Richard Louv is a journalist and the author of ten books, including Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, The Nature Principle, and Vitamin N. Translated into twenty languages, his books have helped launch an international movement to connect children, families, and communities to nature. He is cofounder and chair emeritus of the nonprofit Children & Nature Network, which supports a new nature movement. Louv has written for the New York Times, Outside magazine, Orion Magazine, Parents, and many other publications. He appears regularly on national radio and TV, and lectures throughout the world. In 2008, he was awarded the Audubon Medal. Prior recipients have included Rachel Carson, E. O. Wilson, President Jimmy Carter, and Sir David Attenborough.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION

One evening when my boys were younger, Matthew, then ten, looked at me from across a restaurant table and said quite seriously, “Dad, how come it was more fun when you were a kid?”

I asked what he meant.

“Well, you’re always talking about your woods and tree houses, and how you used to ride that horse down near the swamp.”

At first, I thought he was irritated with me. I had, in fact, been telling him what it was like to use string and pieces of liver to catch crawdads in a creek, something I’d be hard-pressed to find a child doing these days. Like many parents, I do tend to romanticize my own childhood— and, I fear, too readily discount my children’s experiences of play and adventure. But my son was serious; he felt he had missed out on something important.

He was right. Americans around my age, baby boomers or older, enjoyed a kind of free, natural play that seems, in the era of kid pagers, instant messaging, and Nintendo, like a quaint artifact.

Within the space of a few decades, the way children understand and experience nature has changed radically. The polarity of the relationship has reversed. Today, kids are aware of the global threats to the environment— but their physical contact, their intimacy with nature, is fading. That’s exactly the opposite of how it was when I was a child.

As a boy, I was unaware that my woods were ecologically connected with any other forests. Nobody in the 1950s talked about acid rain or holes in the ozone layer or global warming. But I knew my woods and my fields; I knew every bend in the creek and dip in the beaten dirt paths. I wandered those woods even in my dreams. A kid today can likely tell you about the Amazon rain forest—but not about the last time he or she explored the woods in solitude, or lay in a field listening to the wind and watching the clouds move.

This book explores the increasing divide between the young and the natural world, and the environmental, social, psychological, and spiritual implications of that change. It also describes the accumulating research that reveals the necessity of contact with nature for healthy child—and adult—development.

While I pay particular attention to children, my focus is also on those Americans born during the past two to three decades. The shift in our relationship to the natural world is startling, even in settings that one would assume are devoted to nature. Not that long ago, summer camp was a place where you camped, hiked in the woods, learned about plants and animals, or told firelight stories about ghosts or mountain lions. As likely as not today, “summer camp” is a weight-loss camp, or a computer camp. For a new generation, nature is more abstraction than reality. Increasingly, nature is something to watch, to consume, to wear —to ignore. A recent television ad depicts a four-wheel-drive SUV racing along a breathtakingly beautiful mountain stream—while in the backseat two children watch a movie on a flip-down video screen, oblivious to the landscape and water beyond the windows.

A century ago, the historian Frederick Jackson Turner announced that the American frontier had ended. His thesis has been discussed and debated ever since. Today, a similar and more important line is being crossed.

Our society is teaching young people to avoid direct experience in nature. That lesson is delivered in schools, families, even organizations devoted to the outdoors, and codified into the legal and regulatory structures of many of our communities. Our institutions, urban/suburban design, and cultural attitudes unconsciously associate nature with doom—while disassociating the outdoors from joy and solitude. Wellmeaning public-school systems, media, and parents are effectively scaring children straight out of the woods and fields. In the patent-or-perish environment of higher education, we see the death of natural history as the more hands-on disciplines, such as zoology, give way to more theoretical and remunerative microbiology and genetic engineering. Rapidly advancing technologies are blurring the lines between humans, other animals, and machines. The postmodern notion that reality is only a construct—that we are what we program—suggests limitless human possibilities; but as the young spend less and less of their lives in natural surroundings, their senses narrow, physiologically and psychologically, and this reduces the richness of human experience.

Yet, at the very moment that the bond is breaking between the young and the natural world, a growing body of research links our mental, physical, and spiritual health directly to our association with nature— in positive ways. Several of these studies suggest that thoughtful exposure of youngsters to nature can even be a powerful form of therapy for attention-deficit disorders and other maladies. As one scientist puts it, we can now assume that just as children need good nutrition and adequate sleep, they may very well need contact with nature.

Reducing that deficit—healing the broken bond between our young and nature—is in our self-interest, not only because aesthetics or justice demands it, but also because our mental, physical, and spiritual health depends upon it. The health of the earth is at stake as well. How the young respond to nature, and how they raise their own children, will shape the configurations and conditions of our cities, homes—our daily lives. The following pages explore an alternative path to the future, including some of the most innovative environment-based school programs; a reimagining and redesign of the urban environment—what one theorist calls the coming “zoopolis”; ways of addressing the challenges besetting environmental groups; and ways that faith-based organizations can help reclaim nature as part of the spiritual development of children. Parents, children, grandparents, teachers, scientists, religious leaders, environmentalists, and researchers from across the nation speak in these pages. They recognize the transformation that is occurring. Some of them paint another future, in which children and nature are reunited— and the natural world is more deeply valued and protected.

During the research for this book, I was encouraged to find that many people now of college age—those who belong to the first generation to grow up in a largely de-natured environment—have tasted just enough nature to intuitively understand what they have missed. This yearning is a source of power. These young people resist the rapid slide from the real to the virtual, from the mountains to the Matrix. They do not intend to be the last children in the woods.

My sons may yet experience what author Bill McKibben has called “the end of nature,” the final sadness of a world where there is no escaping man. But there is another possibility: not the end of nature, but the rebirth of wonder and even joy. Jackson’s obituary for the American frontier was only partly accurate: one frontier did disappear, but a second one followed, in which Americans romanticized, exploited, protected, and destroyed nature. Now that frontier—which existed in the family farm, the woods at the end of the road, the national parks, and in our hearts—is itself disappearing or changing beyond recognition.

But, as before, one relationship with nature can evolve into another. This book is about the end of that earlier time, but it is also about a new frontier—a better way to live with nature.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Algonquin Books; Updated and Expanded edition (April 10, 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 156512605X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1565126053
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.05 x 8.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #8,866 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #14 in Hiking & Camping Instructional Guides
- #31 in Popular Child Psychology
- #114 in Nature & Ecology (Books)

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Richard Louv is a journalist and author of ten books, including Our Wild Calling: How Connecting With Animals Can Transform Our Lives - And Save Theirs, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder, The Nature Principle: Reconnecting with Life in a Virtual Age, and Vitamin N: The Essential Guide to a Nature-Rich Life: 500 Ways to Enrich Your Family’s Health & Happiness. His books have been translated and published in 24 countries, and helped launch an international movement to connect children, families and communities to nature. He is co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Children & Nature Network, an organization helping build the movement.

He appears frequently on national radio and television programs, including the Today Show, CBS Evening News, and NPR’s Fresh Air. He speaks internationally on nature-deficit disorder, a concept he first introduced in Last Child in the Woods; on the importance of children’s and adults’ exposure to nature for their health, and on the need for environmental protection and preservation for greater access to nature and the health of the Earth. Among others, he has presented keynote addresses at the American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference; the USC Institute for Integrative Health Conference; the first White House Summit on Environmental Education; the Congress of the New Urbanism; the International Healthy Parks Conference in Melbourne, Australia; and the national Friends of Nature Conference in Beijing, China.

In 2008, he was awarded the national Audubon Medal; prior recipients included Rachel Carson, E.O. Wilson and President Jimmy Carter. He is also a recipient of the San Diego Zoological Society Conservation Medal; the George B. Rabb Conservation Medal from the Chicago Zoological Society; the International Making Cities Livable Jane Jacobs Award; and the Cox Award, Clemson University’s highest honor for “sustained achievement in public service.” In 2018, he received an Honorary Doctorate from the NewSchool of Architecture & Design.

As a journalist and commentator, Louv has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Times of London, Orion, Outsideand other newspapers and magazines. He was a columnist for The San Diego Union-Tribuneand Parents magazine. Louv has served as a visiting scholar for Clemson University and Brandeis University’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management. He is a member of the editorial board of the journal, Ecopsychology. With artist Robert Bateman, he serves as honorary co-chair of Canada’s Child in Nature Alliance. He is also on the advisory boards of Biophilic Cities and the International Association of Nature Pedagogy.

Married to Kathy Frederick Louv, he is the father of two young men, Jason and Matthew. He would rather hike than write.

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Bryan Carey

Out of the Home and into the Great Outdoors

Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2011

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Last Child in the Woods is a very good book about social trends over the past couple of decades- trends that are taking children away from the great outdoors and back inside where electronic games, cell phones, televisions, and similar types of entertainment consume almost all of their time and attention. The book's intent is to illustrate the negative impacts of too little time spent in nature and what parents and even localities can do to get more nature in kids' lives and make inner cities more accommodating to natural activities.

I'm not much of an outdoorsman, but I agree that exposure to natural settings is a positive experience for countless reasons. When you spend your time working and living in a city, an excursion into the countryside is good because it helps relieve stress, offers some fresh air, exposes you to wildlife, etc. and I would probably partake in these activities more often if my schedule permitted. Last Child in the Woods stresses that parents need to find a way make time, for the sake of their kids and themselves. The benefits from hiking, camping, and otherwise re-connecting with the outdoors are immeasurable and they apply to adults and kids alike.

Most of Last Child in the Woods is dedicated to children and what needs to be done to help reverse the trends of the past thirty years and get kids to put down their cell phones, remote controls, and joysticks in favor of some time spent exploring a park, forest, or other natural setting. The consequences of too much time indoors include some obvious and not- so- obvious outcomes. The inactivity is part of the reason that child obesity is such a serious and growing problem. Too much time inside also leads to boredom and a reduction of creative and problem- solving skills. But as this book points out, the negative results extend into areas that many would not have even considered. One example is the growing problem with ADHD. Studies have shown that ADHD diagnosis is lessened with more exposure to natural settings and this trend toward less outdoor activity could be part of the reason that ADHD is more common today than in the past.

Besides the emphasis on children and improving their outdoor IQ, this book is also about change on other levels. It talks about the role of cities in making the move toward a more nature- friendly urban and suburban setting. It talks about the movements in some large cities to establish more green space; construct buildings with green rooftops; plant more trees; and increase environmental education at the elementary and high school levels. These specialty schools are a great idea for the education they provide, but as the book points out, any school can take a step in the right direction by utilizing the outdoors as part of the educational process. Any school can talk about outdoors and even hold some of the classes in an outdoor setting. It can work wonders for children and can pay handsome dividends in the future.

Last Child in the Woods is a thoughtful book with much to offer. Not only does the author make many good points about nature and its importance to children, he even includes several supplemental sections that offer good recommendations and advice. There is a section with 100 actions we can take to improve the recent trends; good books for kids and families; suggestions to transform communities; etc. The author really went beyond the call of duty with these extras. The main part of the book is already very good, but now you get all of this extra guidance and assistance. Anyone who is not sure where to start can benefit tremendously from reading these extra sections.

The trend away from outdoor recreation has been going on for decades and while many may not think about a subject like this, it is certainly one that deserves our time and consideration. Today's children are far less inclined to spend time outdoors than their parents and grandparents and this lack of interaction with the natural world can have dire consequences. Everyone could benefit from more time outside and while this book could have benefitted from more official studies to back its claims and findings, it is still a very good, useful, thoughtful book that everyone should take the time to read.

5 people found this helpful

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kubryan

A must read for all parents

Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2013

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This book is a must read for any parent who is struggling with trying to find a way to get their kids outside. Nature and natural play has changed from what it was and access to truly natural settings is getting harder and harder. As a parent I desperately want to share my love for the outdoors but doing so in today's world proves daunting. Add to that the limited access to natural settings that are not legislated by Home Owners Associations, Parks Services, and the like, which only further limit a child's ability to play and experience the natural world freely, and it feels impossible.

This book is devoted to explaining the benefits of access to natural settings with regards to health, mental wellness, holistic healing, and beyond. Secondly, this book confronts many of the current barriers to the shrinking and limited natural space and also the limitations we are self imposing on the remaining natural spaces we have left. The author offers a lot of research findings and professional interviews which support his claims. Finally he begins to offer solutions on how we can, even in our changing society, begin to shift our current paradigm. He offers solutions to common fears and also asks the parent to take some risks and let go a little. But most importantly he poses a very impassioned plea to each reader to no longer be passive, to no longer accept the shrinking natural areas but to find new spaces, to set aside spaces in new developments, and to be more intentional with urban and city planning. By doing these things we can still keep some natural spaces pure and offer our children natural places to play and we can share our love for the outdoors with many future generations.

This book is a truly inspiring read and I strongly recommend it to anyone who still has a desire to be in nature and to share that love and to pass on that desire to your children and their children as well.

3 people found this helpful

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Nevado de Colima

buen libro

Reviewed in Mexico on December 5, 2019

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Excelente libro

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Hermann Bolz

Wer wissen will, wohin unsere Reise führt, der lese dieses Buch

Reviewed in Germany on August 23, 2020

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Der Autor setzt sich intensiv mit der Entfernung der amerikanischen Jugend von der Natur auseinander und formuliert eine Reihe von Vorschlägen, wie man dies ändern könne. Verglichen mit unseren Verhältnissen ist bei uns in Europa die Welt noch einigermaßen in Ordnung. Allerdings kann man auch hier erkennen, dass unserer Jugend zunehmend die Nähe zur Natur verloren geht. Dies liegt nicht zuletzt daran, dass durch zahlreiche Schutzvorschriften Naturschutz überhöht und der ursprünglich natürliche Kontakt zwischen Mensch und Natur, auch unter dem Gesichtspunkt der Nutzung der Natur, verhindert wird. Wohin das führt, kann man dem Buch "Last Child in the Wood" überdeutlich entnehmen.

3 people found this helpful

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Cliente Amazon

Necesario

Reviewed in Spain on February 19, 2017

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Es una pena que este libro tan interesante y práctico no esté en castellano. Nos recuerda lo importante que es estar en contacto con la naturaleza, en este mundo cada vez más tecnologico.

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Susan L. Marrier

The most important thing you can do for our kids and the planet.

Reviewed in Canada on June 13, 2013

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Louv makes a compelling case for getting our kids outside, and does it in an engaging way with personal anecdotes as well as enough statistics to prove his case. It turns out that playing outside in nature does more for children's physical, cognitive, social, and spiritual development than any other factor. And he includes courses of action, with examples, for parents, educators, policy-makers, faith communities, and others, making this not only an enjoyable read but also a practical handbook for change. The only drawback is a bit of repetitiveness, but that also serves to drive the points home. This book should be in the hands and on the shelves of every parent, educator, and policy-maker, for the health of our kids and of the planet.

2 people found this helpful

Riccardo Colombo

Spedizione veloce, bel libro

Reviewed in Italy on February 24, 2014

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Recensire un libro o il servizio?
Come sempre il servizio è stato integerrimo, ordine veloce, tempi di consegna eccellenti.
Il libro è stato consegnato in ottime condizioni e, soprattutto, è estremamente interessante.

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