Sedentary Activity Trends in Preschool Children

Of late, I have been reading a large amount of literature on the importance of play, outdoor learning and physical activity levels of children, but the findings referenced in the 2012 research study by Copeland, K. et al really made me stop and think hard: “Children spend most (70%–83%) of their time being sedentary in child care—even when excluding time spent in naps and meals—and only spend 2% to 3% of the time in vigorous activities”. What irreparable damage are we doing to our young children, setting up such patterns of behaviour for their lives ahead?

Figures from the World Health Organisation report a tenfold increase in worldwide childhood obesity rates in the last four decades. The report published in The Lancet in 2017 found that the number of obese children and adolescents rose from 11 million in 1975 to 124 million in 2016 and that an additional 216 million children were overweight. Along with the report the WHO published guidelines which makes recommendations to reduce these obesity figures, including a reduction in ‘sedentary leisure activities by promoting greater participation in physical activity through active recreation and sports.’ But it seems that the opposite is happening and, most disturbingly, from the earliest years of child care.

The study by Copeland et al. involving 49 child-care providers working in 34 child-care centres in Ohio, U.S.A, sought to find out the reason behind these and other such striking statistics. They found three main barriers to physical activities in child care centres to be 1) injury concerns, 2) financial constraints and 3) a focus on ‘academics’.  

With the study having been conducted in the U.S. the first barrier, ‘injury concerns’, is undoubtedly a result of the litigious culture that has grown up there and is fast spreading to the rest of the world. Also, the rapidly changing attitudes towards child safety and societal pressures on parents and child care-givers to eliminate risk have greatly altered the play opportunities given to children in recent years. The second barrier, ‘financial constraints’, seems like a no-brainer to me. How much does it cost for children to run, jump or dance? The participant responses cited lack of funds for play equipment and resource allocation favouring particular curriculum areas. Don’t these just seem like excuses rather than concrete reasons? Barrier no. 3, a ‘focus on academics’ is, in a way, connected to the first barrier in the sense that it is also driven by a societal pressure; that of de-emphasising play in favour of formal learning, often characterised by large amounts of seated activities. Behind that is a climate of competition and high-achievement, thrust upon children of increasingly early ages.

As an educator, it is this move towards focusing on academics, readying children for school in favour of developmentally-appropriate, whole-child nurturing, that really bothers me. Something I find myself repeating in parent orientation sessions or staff professional development workshops is that we should stop regarding each stage of education as a preparation for the next stage but view each stage as complete and self-contained. But isn’t it the case that, actually, secondary school is seen as preparation for university or the world of work, primary school as preparation for secondary and, most worryingly, nursery or kindergarten as preparation for school? I regularly trot out John Dewey’s words, ‘Education is not preparation for life, it is life itself’ (the quote I’ve chosen at the bottom of my blog) as I converse with teachers and parents sharing anxiety about children being ready for the next stage or beyond. This notion of ‘preparedness’ is also limited to a narrow performance-orientated conception, focusing on academic abilities – how well a child can read, write and compute. The supporting skills that go along with this in many early childhood programmes are how well a child can sit and listen, hold a pencil and recite letters of the alphabet, numbers and number facts – all focused on the cognitive areas of development. The UK government’s plans to roll out statutory testing for four- and five-year olds in the areas of language, communication, literacy and numeracy are further evidence of the performance-driven education culture we have drifted towards.

With societal and governmental pressure to focus on academic learning, it is inevitable that early years’ settings are going to lean further towards sedentary activities and that vigorous physical activity will be further squeezed out in the timetable. The negative effects on health and well-being – mental as well as physical – are already being clearly seen but a collective awakening needs to take place in order to turn things around in time for our youngest members of society.

References

Copeland et al. 2012. Societal values and policies may curtail preschool children’s physical activity in child care centrers. Pediatrics. 129(2): 265–274.

WHO, 2017. Worldwide trends in body-mass Index, underweight, overweight and obesity from 1975 to 2016: a pooled analysis of 20416 population-based measurement studies In 128.9 million children, adolescents and adults.