Kids Not Active in Care

05/27/2015

Watch what you tell yourself, you’re likely to believe it.
Russ Kyle

A recent study reported in Pediatrics found that children in child care spend less than 48 minutes a day while in the center in physical activities. Other findings:

Kids were most active when sent outside for free play.
Outdoor teacher-led activities occurred less than 1% of the day in care.
Children spent 88% of their time in either sedentary activities or taking naps.

This was an observational study of 98 children in 10 child care centers in Seattle. Some of the directors whose centers were studied admitted that this is a problem, but that the pressure from parents to focus on reading and math skills to prepare them for kindergarten result in a pushing down of academics and a "deprioritization" of free play.

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