Dirty Play: Why Children Need Mud, Microbes & Nature

Mud, muck and microbes are not hazards to be scrubbed from childhood; they can be some of its most powerful ingredients.

Dirty Play makes the scientific case for letting children get gloriously, beneficially dirty. Coined by the author and microbial ecologist Jake Robinson, ‘dirty play’ is intuitive, unstructured, sensory-rich engagement with soil, mud, plants and the microbially diverse environments of the living world. Bringing together the science of play, the latest in microbiome resear...