most children and youth are far below the desired levels of activity
I am a big big fan of unstructured play, and this report speaks to the importance of unstructured play in terms of physical activity. Is over-programming a problem in child development?
CFLRI - Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute:
most children and youth are far below the desired levels of activity associated with having a healthy weight. This by itself is important. However, Canada’s Physical Activity recommendations for children and youth were suggested to focus on more than weight alone.
These activity recommendations were also suggested to move children and youth toward healthy child development for both physical and mental health in areas such as healthy neuromuscular development or the healthy development of physical self-esteem. Thus, the CFLRI results also suggest that current activity levels are below the bar noted in the Guide recommendation in promoting these areas of development.
Dependence on Organized Activity??
A second important finding not to be overlooked is that for children and youth who are more active, much of their involvement is characterized by organized opportunities for activity. While this finding suggests these opportunities need to be maintained, it also underscores a disturbing trend.
For the children and youth studied, much less activity was unorganized, free play.