Physical Activity for Early Years Start Early, Stay Active for Life
What is Physical Activity? Any bodily movement Physical Activity for Pre 5s is usually Active Play
What is Physical Activity? For Babies < 1 year For Pre-Schoolers For Toddlers Varied activities appropriate to developmental stage • Tummy time • • Walking or running Standing up and • Reaching for or • Rolling, skipping, crawling or walking grasping balls or • hopping, running Rolling, skipping, other toys and jumping. hopping, running • Playing or rolling on • Ball Games and jumping. • the floor • Swimming Playing in water • Crawling around • • Jumping on a Chasing games the home • trampoline Playing in the park • Supervised water • • Playing in the park Dancing • based play Riding a bike or a scooter
Benefits of Physical Activity for Early Years • At no other point will children learn as many skills as they do in the first 5 years of life • Is this a ‘teachable moment’ to instil healthy family habits more generally? • Physical activity is crucial for physical development and beneficial for cognitive development
Physical Activity and Motor Skill Development • Physical Activity is crucial for gross and fine motor skill development – We can think of this as ‘ physical literacy’ e.g. a trial of passive cycling in infants showed improved body control, balance, grasping and hand-eye coordination. (Timmons et al 2012)
Gross Motor Skill Developmental Milestones • texy There are wide ranges in which healthy babies achieve developmental milestones
Physical Activity and Health in Early Years Systematic Review evidence for PA in Early Years suggests PA improves: • Skeletal health (those in trial showed increased leg bone circumference, but no change in bone mineral content) • Psychosocial Health (those in PA trials showed greater gains in social competence, externalizing behaviour, were less withdrawn & more outgoing) • Cardio-metabolic Health (Some evidence PA improves blood pressure, insulin resistance, cholesterol, blood lipid profiles even amongst pre school age children) (Timmons et al, 2012; Metcalf et al 2008; Saakslahti et al , 2004)
Physical Activity and Cognitive Development • Early years is one of the most critical and intensive period of brain development • Healthy brain development at this stage lays the foundations for cognitive development throughout life (Khan et al, 2014) • Strong links in older children and adults for developing cognitive & neural functioning and growing evidence amongst early years (Carson et al 2016) • It is likely that the mechanism this is via the development of new neurons, neural pathways and vascularization (Clark et al, 2009)
Physical Activity and Cognitive Development • Systematic Review Evidence suggests increased PA in early years had significant beneficial effects on cognitive development (improving 67% of outcomes in the executive function domain and 60% of outcomes in the language domain) • Emerging evidence in early years for improvement in: – Language – Flexibility of ideas – Sustained attention – Self regulation – better behavioural control (Carson et al , 2016)
Physical Activity and Sleep • More outdoor play is associated with better sleep outcomes in pre-schoolers • More (TV) screen time associated with worse sleep outcomes in pre-schoolers • Sleep Guidance for early years will be included in forthcoming UK CMO physical activity guidance
Summary of PA Benefits • Fundamental Motor Skills • Self confidence for Development parents & child • Social and cognitive • Communication skills development • Language development • Development of brain • Social & emotional structures bonding with family & • Sensory development other children • Strong bones, muscles • Learn about their bodies and heart and their environment • Maintaining a healthy • Improves sleep weight
Physical Activity Guidelines for Early Years • Non – walkers – Physical activity should be encouraged from birth, particularly through floor based play and water-based activities
Physical Activity Guidelines for Early Years • Walkers – Should be physically active daily for at least 180 minutes (3 hours) throughout the day
Early Intervention Needed • Common misconception that this age group are physically active • Physical activity declines and sedentary behaviour increases when children start school, so cannot wait until then to intervene (Cooper, et al 2015; Janssen et al , 2016; Farooq et al , 2018) • Growing concern about low fitness and poor motor skills of those beginning school. We need to support children to be healthy and ‘school ready’
How Active is Scotland? 100 90 Percentage Achieving Recommended Levels of Physical Actvity 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 5-7 8-10 11-12 13-15 16-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74 75+ Age Boys Girls Men Women Source: Scottish Health Survey 2017 annual report https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-health-survey-2017-volume-1-main-report/
How Active are Children in Scotland?
How Active are Pre School Children? • There is no national data set measuring physical activity for infants or toddlers, but PA declines with age • 2-4 years olds need to do 80 mins more PA per day Children aged 2-4 years in Scotland participate in only 104 mins PA per day – almost 80 mins below recommended levels (Scottish Health Survey, 2017) • Only half 2-4 year olds participate in active play for more than 2 hours per day 47% on weekdays, 53% weekends. This declines rapidly with age (Scottish Health Survey, 2017 ) • Only 20% of nursery day is physically active In an Australian Study, children spent 48 % of their time at childcare sitting, 33% standing, and 19% in PA. Boys spent significantly more time in PA compared to girls (20.8% vs 17.7%; P = 0.003). Toddlers (< 3 years) spent significantly more time in PA compared to pre-schoolers (≥ 3 years) (22.2% vs 18.3%; P < 0.001). (Ellis et al, 2016)
Sedentary Behaviour • Sedentary behaviour is any sitting, lying or reclining whilst awake • No specific guideline on maximum amounts (yet) • All under 5s should minimise the amount of time spent sedentary • Screen time is not recommended for those < 1 year • For toddlers and pre-schoolers, no more than 1 hour per day screen time is recommended, less is better • For older children, no more than 2 hours per day screen time is recommended
How Sedentary are Scottish Children? • Most children have higher screen time than recommended. 83% 2-4yr olds watch more than 1 hour a day on weekdays and 87% watch more than recommended on weekends. • Screen time is higher for those living in areas of high deprivation On weekdays, 58% children in least deprived areas watch too much screens compared to 78% in most deprived areas. • Children spend most of their day sitting down 50% of their waking day sitting down by age 6-7 years. This increases with age to over 75% of waking time by age 15 years. As children get older, the bouts of sitting become much longer with fewer breaks in sitting . Source: Active Healthy Kids Scotland Report Card, 2018 https://www.activehealthykidsscotland.co.uk/files/2018/11/2018_Data_Sources.pdf
Universal Signposting
Universal Resources • Play @ Home programme • Book Bug Sessions go designed to encourage alongside the book bags parents and carers to which are given out for free help the development of • Held in Libraries across children Scotland • Free books available from • The sessions are fun, with PHRU for Health or stories, rhymes and play Education Staff
Common Concerns and Support 4 m Lack of Tummy Time She’s happier strapped in the Universal Message: seat, and it lets • Daily tummy time is vital for me watch the older children all babies for their development. Allow them My baby opportunity to move and doesn’t like being on his explore a safe space which is I don’t really tummy know how to free from clutter play with a baby this Resources: Play @ Home & young Tummy Time Leaflets, inc tips My other children didn’t crawl at all, so for Tummy Time and videos. there’s no point in putting her on her tummy just now Avoid : keeping baby strapped in or seated for too long.
13 – 15 Common Concerns and Support m Lack of weight bearing / Not walking She’s shuffling Universal Message : along on her • bum, but isn’t All babies are develop at different interested in rates standing up yet • As babies learn to move they will be a bit wobbly to start, so give them a bit I’ve put him in of support and a safe environment to a baby walker explore. to help him Everyone • Often bottom shufflers will be later to learn how to else’s babies walk than those who crawl walk are walking • Minimise sedentary and screen time at this age at playgroup Avoid: The use of Baby Walkers is not recommended. They do not help healthy development and can be unsafe She’s very unsteady on her feet, I’m worried she might hurt herself See Pathway for Support: if concerned re general developmental delay, asymmetric development, or regression of development
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