There is a worrying trend of increased inactivity in preschool children. Many children spend a bulk of their times in sedentary activities, particularly in homebased activities such as television, playstation and videos. While a portion of down time for preschoolers in these type of activities is considered acceptable, many children have become used to sitting down to watch someone else provide them with entertainment rather than using their bodies and natural creativity to discover their world.
Parents and caregivers need to provide activities that not only encourage children to become more physically active, but also to develop pre reading skills in their children through active play.
While it is important to make sure our children are in a safe environment, it is also important that centres provide room for running, crawling, and moving around. A mixture of adult initiated outside play and free play can work best as then children who are not exposed to a range of physical activity outside their centre can have the scaffolding required to learn new physical skills.
Children who are confident physically are much more likely to become more confident in academic pursuits. There is a strong correlation to confidence in physical skills and the ability to persevere when faced with another type of learning challenge. Many children today have become children who are able to read and write from a young age but not able to feel confident about their bodies. While they may be able to communicate through the written word, they are unable to climb, run, hop and jump. All these skills are essential for our children, and if not learnt at an early age can have long term effects on our children’s academic and professional performance throughout their life.
While some children relish any opportunity to go outside, others will always choose the more sedentary inside activities provided inside. It is a good idea to observe children and encourage those who tend to stay inside to come outside for selected activities.
Reading or drawing outside on summery days can be a good way to initiate outside play. Including games such as Duck Duck Goose, ball skills development and Simon Says can help children become used to physical activity while also learning important skills in following instructions and turn taking.
Providing children with corporate opportunities to create outside can be another method of moving the more sedentary children outside. While we can encourage self-choice and, asking a child directly to participate can help them feel included and involved. Some good ideas in this category are the use of painting, paper mache, messy play and water play. Ask children to set it up with you, and give them a sense of ownership by directing what type of materials they will need to complete the activity (such as types of paper, colours of paint or themes.
Music and movement sessions incorporating dance, ribbons, and parachutes move easily outside. Building a fort or a tent together can be a fun exercise that allows those sedentary children to have a well loved result- a place they can sit quietly outside.
Physical confidence will benefits our children and helps them to be able to cope with learning in other areas. Children who develop sound physical skills during their early years are more likely to achieve and persevere when faced with academic challenges once they arrive at school. It is important to encourage even the most reluctant child in physical games and activities to counteract the pervasive habits many have of excessive sedentary activities.
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