Dr Ajmol Ali – 
A collaborative effort to reduce childhood obesity will continue in the New Year, with Massey University and the University of Waikato promoting healthy eating and exercise patterns through a partnership with ‘BestStart Education and Care Centres.’
Throughout a ten-week period in the last quarter of the past year, 155 preschoolers in two South Auckland centres participated in weekly exercise sessions – jumping, balancing, catching balls and performing forward rolls to improve fitness and fundamental movement patterns. This round of research finished will resume in Hamilton this month (January).
‘Jumping Beans,’ a physical activity and skills programme for early childhood education, is a key collaborator.
Skilled teachers
Centre teachers have been up skilled, with the delivery of professional development in physical literacy and ways to provide better opportunities for children to be more physically active.
Additionally, Massey University is providing nutrition training to staff to boost awareness of the positive effects of a healthy diet on preschoolers.
Obesity rates in New Zealand children are increasing at an alarming rate. With more children enrolled in Early Childhood Education centres, it is becoming extremely important that they are provided with appropriate physical activity and nutrition practices.
The impact of these good practices will not only affect physical activity levels and promote better nutrition but will also enable improved sleep and better management of children.
Limited opportunities
Research suggests children with better motor skills may have improved academic and cognitive abilities and also enhanced physical activity levels as adolescents and adults.
So why aren’t more Kiwi pre-schools doing it?
Children’s opportunities to stay active are being limited.
There is a lack of focus in initial teacher education on physical education and nutrition. Teachers’ perceptions of risk and rigid playground regulations are creating ‘cotton wool children.’
The most common barriers identified in a nationwide scoping report (Sport and Recreation New Zealand) were limited information, knowledge and skills of teachers, and their lack of confidence in providing a wide range of physical activity opportunities.
Breaking barriers
Massey University, the University of Waikato and ‘BestStart’ are working with programme provider ‘Jumping Beans’ to break down these issues, making it easier for teachers to get the balance back into the classroom.
BestStart Chief Operations Officer Fiona Hughes believes that the programme will benefit staff, the children and their parents.
“Teachers will be more confident, it might improve staff morale, and lead to more settled and physically active children, happy parents and a market edge to forward-thinking ECE centres,” she said.
Exciting partnership
According to Ms Hughes, there was an obvious need for urgent action.
“At a new centre I was visiting, I noticed a child who was particularly tall for his age but also very overweight. I thought that he had very little chance of getting control of his weight given his habits were formed at such a young age. This stayed with me and as I visited other centres and noticed more children who were overweight and in some cases obese. I was struck by the potential impact on society and began to think of a meaningful way in which we could approach the issue.
“The partnership with Massey and Waikato is very exciting, and has the potential to provide extremely valuable findings. The research will provide concrete evidence about the impact of this physical activity on preschoolers. We’re also expecting fresh insights into the value of further professional development of staff around exercise. These findings will guide our programmes and curriculum.”
The BestStart Study centres which received the 10-week programme last year were ‘Tennessee Kiwicare,’ Mangere and ‘ABC Hayman Park.’
The BestStart Control centres are Community Kindy Te Rapa and Community Kindy Greenwood – both in Hamilton. They will undergo the same programme in the first term of 2016. The results will be compared with the Auckland centres.
Once the research is completed, staff and the Centre’s children will also have a fitness programme delivered to them.
Dr Ajmol Ali is Senior Lecturer at the Massey University School of Sport and Exercise. The above article and pictures are reproduced here by courtesy of Massey News.
*
Photo :
Physical activity keeps children in good stead (Picture Courtesy: ‘Jumping Beans’)
