Know

Personal Reflection

Think about your own lifestyle and daily routines. What types of physical activities do you enjoy? You might be a runner or a regular gym-goer or you could swim or spend time in the park with your dog. Or you may find that you struggle to fit physical activity into your busy schedule. However, there are unlimited ways to be physically active in your own life. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity, or an equivalent combination each week. The guidelines also recommend moving more and sitting less and spending at least 2 days a week on whole body muscle strengthening activities. Following these guidelines can contribute to overall health and decrease the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, or diabetes. As with school-age children, it is best to engage in physical activities that you enjoy. This will help you keep up with a routine and turn physical activity into a daily healthy habit. In this course, you will find a number of websites with physical activity information for adults. As a school-age staff member, you can be a positive role model for children as you lead a healthy lifestyle and include physical activity in your daily routine..

The Benefits of an Active Lifestyle

There’s a clear connection between leading an active lifestyle and being healthy. Today, more children are regularly diagnosed with chronic diseases such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes. The increase of these diseases in children has been linked to diets that are increasingly less nutritious and lifestyles that are increasingly more sedentary. To help children overcome these risks, it is important that they participate in at least 60 minutes of physical activity daily. The CDC also recommends a combination of aerobic, muscle-strengthening and bone-strengthening activity. Along with a healthy diet, these guidelines in physical activity help children:

• Improve cognition
• Maintain a healthy weight and body mass index
• Achieve physical developmental milestones
• Maintain or improve blood pressure
• Improve cardiovascular fitness
• Improve posture and balance
• Improve overall physical health
• Sleep better

An active lifestyle not only helps children achieve physical health and fitness, but physical activity also improves their mental health. The rapid growth and change that takes place in school-age children’s bodies can often affect their self-esteem and body image. They often experience an increase in feelings of wanting to be accepted by others; frustrations over their physical abilities; and discomfort about their changing bodies. Maintaining an active lifestyle increases energy and helps children maintain a positive attitude that allows them to achieve other health benefits, such as:

• Improved self-esteem and confidence
• Reduced stress
• Improved social skills (especially when participating in team sports or activities)
• Improved focus and brain function
• Reduced risk of depression

Like many good habits, if school-age children develop healthy habits early, they’ll be more likely to maintain an active lifestyle into their teenage years and throughout life.

Understanding Physical Development

Physical development is one domain of development that refers to the growth and refinements of motor skills, in other words, children’s abilities to use and control their bodies. These advancements are evident in gross and fine motor skills, and they are essential to children’s overall health and wellness. Gross motor skills involve the use of large muscles in the legs or arms, as well as general strength and stamina. Examples of such skills include jumping, throwing, climbing, running, skipping, and kicking. Fine motor skills involve the use of small muscles in the arms, hands, and fingers. They are supported by advancements in perception, or the ways in which children use their senses to experience the world around them. Examples of such skills include stringing beads, scribbling, cutting, and drawing. Fine motor skills enable children to perform a variety of self-help tasks, such as using utensils and dressing themselves.

Children’s motor skills develop as a result of physical development and growth. As their bodies mature over time, children progressively strengthen their muscles and improve their coordination, gaining control of their bodies. Skill mastery and development, however, are also the result of brain growth and development. Consider a child kicking a ball back and forth with a peer. This child must have previously acquired control over their movement, and muscle strength to be able to kick the ball. At the same time, this child must also depend on their vision to determine the location and direction in which to kick the ball, and use of their hearing for instructions from peers or caregivers. As children move through the school-age years, their bodies and minds become more capable of increasingly complex patterns of movement and experiences. 

Importance of Physical Activity for Children

Physical activity helps promote physical development, growth, strength, and can help children function better. There are many health benefits related to physical activity including improved bone health, ability to maintain a healthy weight, improved cognition, a reduced risk of cancer, the reduction of anxiety and depression, improved sleep, and quality of life (Piercy et al.). All of these positive changes help children feel more confident about themselves and their bodies as they grow (Let’s Move Child Care, 2013).

Physical activity also provides children with access to learning experiences across all domains. For example, a school-age child who joins a soccer team gains opportunities to broaden their social connections. Through team sports and engaging with their peers children can learn to communicate, build strong relationships, and develop critical thinking skills. Children are natural explorers; their brains develop through activity, experiences, and movement. Children who are not active are at risk of facing several negative consequences, including behavior problems in school, difficulty with academics, obesity, depression, and increased risk for chronic health issues.  

See

As you watch the following video, observe the variety of physical activities that school-age children are participating in. You will also hear from a staff member who discusses how to incorporate physical activities each day and why it is important.

Do

• Model healthy behavior and by leading an active lifestyle.
• Use what you learn throughout this course to incorporate physical activity into your plans each day.
• Understand the connections between being physically active and being healthy.
• Make sure your school-agers get at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day (children younger than six years of age need a minimum of three hours daily)
• Never take away recess as a punishment (see the Positive Guidance course for more information)

Completing this Course

For more information on what to expect in this course, the Physical Development Competency Reflection, and a list of the accompanying Learn, Explore and Apply resources and activities offered throughout the lessons, visit the School-Age Physical Development Course Guide. 

Please note the References & Resources section at the end of each lesson outlines reference sources and resources to find additional information on the topics covered. As you complete lessons, you are not expected to review all the online references available. However, you are welcome to explore the resources further if you have interest, or at the request of your trainer, coach, or administrator.