The current 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 thematicallymatched 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 increases the diversity and specificity

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... parent-child talk about nature, and mitigates the phenomenon of 'plant blindness' (cf. Wandersee & Schussler, 1999) . 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.