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| Boosting physical activity in early childhood |
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A pilot study which found that 82 per cent of children who attend early childhood services were not meeting national physical activity guidelines has prompted the University of Western Australia to team up with the early childhood sector to find ways to boost physical activity.
Dr Hayley Christian from the University's School of Population Health said the new research would look at how professionally developed activity programs in early childhood services and upgrades to outdoor play spaces at the centres impacted children's physical activity.
"Physical activity in young children has broad health benefits such as instilling active behaviour, improved bone development, reduced risk of obesity, and enhanced cognitive and psychosocial development," Dr Christian said.
Data already collected by the team from more than 40 child care centres in Perth and more than 800 families has already shown that on average children are only achieving two of the three hours a day of recommended physical activity.
"Our pilot study in 2014 provided the first objective measure of WA pre-schoolers' physical activity while attending child care centres and the contribution it makes towards them achieving the Australian physical activity guidelines," Dr Christian said.
"With the early years such a critical period for promoting physical activity, child care centres are the ideal setting for targeting strategies aimed at increasing the levels of activity in children."
Dr Christian said the new project would look at whether professional programs developed by her team could help educators to promote greater physical activity and outdoor play among kids.
"We'll also examine the key elements needed in outdoor play spaces to best promote activity," she said.
Dr Christian said the research team would work with partners in the early education and care sector to develop a set of practice guidelines for the design of healthy outdoor play spaces.
"The findings from this project are likely to positively influence policy and practice relating to the physical activity and health of children attending childcare," she said.
"The project has the potential to increase the number of WA pre-schoolers achieving the Australian guidelines of at least three hours of physical activity per day."
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