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Healthy Beginnings Vibrant Childhoods: Supporting Educators to Promote Children's Movement Behaviour
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Healthy Beginnings Vibrant Childhoods: Supporting Educators to Promote Children’s Movement Behaviour
Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) are pivotal in shaping healthy habits for young children. In Canada, two-thirds of young children spend most of their weekdays in childcare, making ECEs key influencers during these formative years. However, ECEs feel underprepared to provide high-quality movement opportunities. In response, we collaborated with diverse experts to develop an evidence-based e-learning course on physical activity and sedentary behavior titled ‘TEACH’. The TEACH course advances ECEs’ knowledge, confidence, and motivation to integrate healthy movement practices into daily programming, ensuring children receive strong foundations for lifelong health and wellbeing. This video shares insights from ECE instructors about the TEACH course, underscoring its value and potential for broader implementation into post-secondary education.
The primary aim of this study is to determine the proportion of 3-to 4-year-old children who meet the World Health Organization(WHO) Global 24-hour Movement Guidelines for the Early Years. The SUNRISE project is being conducted in multiple locations across Canada as well as 63 other countries worldwide!
In Ontario, various COVID-19 public health measures were enforced after the onset of the pandemic in 2020 to reduce the spread of the virus. Such measures included various closures of physical activity-supporting environments, such as: outdoor recreation facilities (e.g., basketball courts), schools, and community centres. These closures left many parents struggling to keep themselves and their children active while spending large amounts of time at home. This video reveals perspectives from Ontario parents and children during pandemic times, concerning their movement behaviours and overall well-being.
This research aims to create a tailored practice resource for occupational therapists to implement the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for the Early Years with preschool-aged clients (aged 3-4 years) with developmental disabilities. These guidelines recommend a balanced approach to physical activity, sedentary time, and sleep, which is crucial for the healthy development of all young children. However, occupational therapists, who play a key role in supporting children with developmental disabilities, have not been using these guidelines in their practice and have requested supports to do so. This study will use a co-design approach to develop a guideline implementation resource for occupational therapists.
The purpose of the MOvement behaviours and irritaBILITY in early childhood (MOBILITY) study is to understand how young children’s 24-hour movement behaviours (i.e., physical activity, sleep, time spent sitting) are related to symptoms of irritability over time.
This video provides an overview and brief demonstration of how to properly put on an accelerometer including how and when to use it.
Are you interested in auditing your local playground for the inclusion of all children of all abilities? The Child Health and Physical Activity Lab led a scoping review on this topic, to help you find tools to evaluate your playground. This research project was supported by the Western Research SSHRC Knowledge Mobilization Grant.
The Supporting Physical Activity in the Childcare Environment, warmly referred to as the SPACE study, aimed to improve the physical activity levels of preschoolers in childcare in London, Ontario. The goal of this study was to get these kids hopping, skipping and running; anything to get their heart beating and body sweating.
A 4-module e-Learning course in physical activity and sedentary behaviour (~90 mins/ module) was completed by pre- and in-service early childhood educators (ECEs). to get their heart beating and body sweating. Via online survey, changes in their physical activity and sedentary behaviour self-efficacy (31 items), knowledge (30 items), and behavioural intention (28 items) were explored.