This Season’s Hot New Toy: Fresh Air

National Post – December 19, 2007
By Jill Barker

"I like to play inside, 'cause that's where all the electrical outlets are," says a fourth grader in the book Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv. Louv claims kids are suffering from nature deficit syndrome and calls on parents to get their kids outside.

His plea has merit. With childhood obesity on the rise and the latest stats suggesting that 73% to 91% of Canadian children don't meet physical activity guidelines, it's time to get kids moving. And study after study suggests that kids are more active outside than inside.

Thomas McKenzie, a professor in the department of exercise and nutritional sciences at San Diego State University, was in Montreal recently talking to physical education students and teachers about physical activity among children. He too encourages kids to get outside.

In a study of children from kindergarten to Grade 2, Mc-Kenzie found that kids were physically active only 25% of the time when indoors. When they were active in the home, parents demanded that they be more sedentary. Interestingly, the presence of other kids prompted more activity while the presence of adults decreased activity.

To be fair, indoors has never been the best place for active play. But kids today prefer playing on computers rather than in playgrounds. According to CAN PLAY, a continuing survey of Canadian youth, children report spending twice as much time in front of a computer screen as they do being physically active.

A 2001 literature review published in Exercise and Sports Science Reviews looked at ways to get kids to put down the mouse and get moving. In a laboratory setting, kids were offered equal opportunity to be active or sedentary. The majority chose to put their feet up. They chose to be physically active only when barriers were put in place to make it harder for them to access sedentary activity than physical activity.

Maybe what it takes to get kids off the couch is to make screen time available to them only after they have done household chores, while letting them play outside without imposing such conditions.

Once outside, do kids know how to keep busy? Today's tendency to enroll kids in structured activities has eroded their ability to engage in spontaneous play. It's rare to see a bunch of kids meet up at the park for a game of shinny or a group of kids playing hide-and-seek after school. Nowadays, structured sport activities are where most kids get their exercise.

To see what prompted kids to play on their own, McKenzie took a look at activity in the schoolyard. The presence of equipment, designated play space with markings and adult supervision resulted in more kids engaging in physical activity than when presented with a barren piece of asphalt or empty green space. Basketball nets with a clearly defined court, soccer nets and a few balls, designated courts for low organizational games and access to a variety of balls, skipping ropes and other equipment can make outdoor play more inviting.

When school environments were so improved, the percentage of kids who were active increased fourfold for the boys and fivefold for the girls. Without the changes, fewer than two per cent of girls and six per cent of boys played in the schoolyard.

Parents can learn a thing or two from McKenzie's study. Hanging a basketball net on the garage, building a rink in the backyard and putting up a badminton net on the lawn makes it easy for a kid to pick up a ball, puck or shuttle and have fun. Easy access to sports equipment and a convenient place to play is sometimes all the incentive a kid needs to be active.

The other pivotal role a parent can play in promoting physical activity is that of a chauffeur or coordinator of transportation to and from activities. Until children reach driving age or are independent enough to take public transportation, they are dependent on their parents to ferry them to and from community sport and recreational activities.

A 1998 study by McKenzie that was published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine found that parent transportation was strongly associated with high levels of physical activity and fitness among fourth graders.

Why do parents need to take a more active role in getting their kids moving? Parental encouragements to be active correlate with high levels of child physical activity. And when healthy habits start young, they have a tendency to stick, meaning an active child is more likely to become an active adult.

This brings us to the final challenge for parents looking to encourage kids to step away from the computer: Teach by example. Be the first one outside. Pick up a basketball and challenge your kid to a little one-on-one, play a quick game of badminton before it gets dark or build a snowman after dinner. Parents who play with their kids set the ultimate example. Being active is fun at any age.

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