Gene Myers, an associate professor of environmental studies at Western Washington University's Huxley College of the Environment, talks about the revised edition of his 1998 book that expands on ideas from studies of children and their interactions with animals.

Question: How did the idea of researching the relationships between animals and children come to you? How did you first approach it, since so little primary research had been done?

Answer: I was an animal kid growing up, and later taught environmental education, including in a remote Kwakiutl village (in British Columbia). So I was interested in understanding the connection kids have with nature, but when psychologists talked about it, it was usually very secondary.

I was intrigued with a Talking Heads song that said, with irony, that animals are "setting a bad example." This led me to write about how we culturally construct animals with our powerful language and ideas. But I thought that was very incomplete; animals really do mean something in and of themselves. I wanted to get deeper into the complex nexus of humanity and animals, and young children are at a stage where language is not their predominant way of functioning.

Q: How did you decide to observe children at a preschool, and what were you studying at the Brookfield Zoo, near Chicago? What was particularly enlightening, intriguing and inspiring at those two institutions, and what did you accomplish?

A: I had worked at a Bellingham day-care center, so I knew how to relate to young children. They are amazing, and they don't think the same way as older kids and grown-ups. So, in Chicago, an experienced preschool teacher at the University of Chicago lab school, who kept animals in her class, invited me to be the "resident uncle."

Much later, I was brought back to Chicago to help conceptualize Brookfield Zoo's new play zoo, which embodies some of my ideas. It's been wildly successful, using developmental psychology to help connect kids to animals and beyond, but I can claim credit for only a little of that.

Q: In light of all the observation and research you have done, as well as our intuitive knowledge that there is a relationship between how children develop a sense of self, what are some of your conclusions that support your thesis from the first edition of your book?

A: I didn't see many unusual things between kids and animals; mostly everyday kind of stuff — petting them, pretending to be animals, reacting when an animal moves toward you or looks at you, and so on. What I contributed was building a set of ideas that made sense of how animals fit into the child's development.

An animal interacts with a child, but not like a person, and it's the stories illustrating those differences that get to the heart it: we are the species that can connect to other species. But I didn't prove one thing causes another; I have just suggested how the puzzle pieces fit; it has yet to be verified rigorously.

Q: What's the "biocentric" approach you take of child development in connection to children's relationships with animals, and how does this affect one's adult psychological and sociological makeup?

A: Psychology is pretty focused on other people as the determining factors in how we grow up. And with good reason. But it's underemphasized the non-human living world. Given half a chance, lots of children figure out what it means to be human in part by having friends that are not. My next book, a text on "conservation psychology" expands that to other parts of nature, as well as how grown-ups can change.

Q: How can parents and teachers learn from your study about the importance not only of pets (in the home and in the classroom setting), but about how children relate to non-domestic animals?

A: You're right to expand it beyond pets in the home, to wild animals, and so on. It's a rich area, with more and more people working creatively with animals and writing about it. We have some great organizations right in Whatcom County. I've learned that kids (and parents) are fairly different in their preferences for animals. There are many things animals intersect with.

One thing is to watch and listen carefully to your children's responses to animals. They're interested in them, even if it's "being glued" fearfully. Don't assume you have to be the intermediary between the child and the animal; quite likely you will — kids need help knowing how to interact.

But leave some space, and validate the perceptions and feelings kids have about animals they encounter. Think of as facilitating the child's relationship with a new friend: there's good social development and enjoyment here, you don't have to make that happen; but you may have to help smooth the rough edges, and you can learn a lot by asking questions about your child's feelings and thoughts. Each person's encounter with nature is one of the most fundamental relationships of life; it's worth paying attention to and fostering.