Many children today suffer from the consequences of lack of exercise and poor nutrition at an early age. Yet physical activity is enormously important for healthy development right from the start. But how can we motivate our little ones to do sports and steer their urge to move in the right direction? Practice makes perfect – not only for those who want to become soccer players, but also for those who simply want to have a healthy body. The earlier sufficient exercise and an active lifestyle are integrated into everyday life, the more naturally this will be maintained later in life. Parents have a responsibility to promote the long-term health of their children. However, it is not always easy to lure children away from the TV or computer and get them to exercise.
Widespread disease of lack of exercise
The range of different opportunities for children and young people to do sport in their free time has also increased in recent years with the general fitness craze. School sports and various childcare facilities have also responded to the visible lack of exercise among a growing number of children. In many places, attempts are being made, for example, to make break times more active for students and to create additional incentives for more exercise. The real problem, however, lies elsewhere. Children today have become more lethargic, especially when it comes to everyday activities. The main reason for this is the increasing use of media, even among the youngest children. Around a quarter of children now only spend a little more than an hour a day actually exercising. If left to their own devices at home, they often prefer game consoles or cell phones to active leisure activities. It is also troubling that children from socially disadvantaged families in particular show the greatest deficits in physical activity. “Social situation is a big indicator of children’s mobility” notes Andrea Möllmann-Bardak. She is deputy managing director of the association Gesundheit Berlin-Brandenburg. Among other things, she says, the limited opportunities in the immediate vicinity are responsible for this. In the midst of densely packed apartment blocks and a lack of play facilities, the kids then prefer to stay at home. Study reveals extent of lack of exercise
A long-term study by the Robert Koch Institute on the health of children and adolescents in Germany (KiGGS) is examining the physical activity behavior of a total of almost 18,000 children between the ages of four and seventeen in several individual modules. The study will run until 2020, but two of the modules have already been completed and have brought corresponding results to light. “Lack of exercise (has) never been as big a problem as it is today,” said Professor Dr. Alexander Woll of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), which is overseeing the motor skills module in the study. “There are more and more children with motor problems.” A wide variety of parameters were included in the study. Both the respective level of physical development was documented and the ability to move was examined using various tests. Even basic movement patterns such as walking backwards or balancing on a narrow beam overtax the physical abilities of many adolescents. Health problems in children
Aside from the disadvantages this poses in accomplishing a wide variety of tasks in everyday life, other negative effects are apparent. Above all, health is affected by the lack of exercise. The consequences on physical and mental development are manifold:
- Poorly developed musculature
- Motor maldevelopment
- Postural deformities
- Generally lower performance
- Overweight
- Lack of concentration
- Perception and coordination disorders
Studies in schools across the country have shown that the number of obese children has approximately doubled in the period from 1993/94 to 1999/2000. In addition to the lower activity in everyday life, a wrong diet is also responsible for this. If the children’s natural urge to move is too strongly restricted or suppressed, the children often also tend toward aggressive behavior or unhappiness. Leisure activities today
According to the KiGGS study, just over three-quarters of 3- to 17-year-olds regularly engage in sports – the majority of them in a club.Overall, more children than before are taking up the offer of organized sports. An increased need for after-school care has also led to a greater number of children joining clubs. Nevertheless, this is where the gap between the different educational levels is most apparent. The majority of members in sports clubs are members of the middle or upper classes. Despite the time available, some parents from the Harz4 milieu apparently do not manage to instruct their children to get enough exercise. Many spend the majority of their free time in front of a screen anyway, whether it’s a TV, computer, game console or cell phone – regardless of their social environment. Passive entertainment has become more attractive for children than being active themselves. Often, the colorful virtual world also seems more interesting and enjoyable than dealing with real challenges in real life. In addition to various deficits caused by the lack of exercise, many educators or teachers also report that children’s creativity has waned – another consequence of the change in leisure habits. The ability to occupy themselves or reflect on experiences has also decreased, they say.
Effects on development
Movement, among other things of one’s own accord, is among the most important sources of motivation in learning new skills. Through sensory experience on the one hand of his own body, and on the other hand through interaction with the environment, we can train important movements and other qualities. The first movements make it possible for babies to gradually expand their radius of action and make contact with their environment. Various impulses for action that characterize childhood are linked to active movement:
- Joy of movement
- Curiosity
- Need for variety and new stimuli
- Need for recognition
- Need for achievement
The scientific field of psychomotricity deals with these processes. Through their own perception in combination with movement, so necessary experiences are made and connections can be recognized:
- Through body experience, self-competence is promoted: This includes, for example, the experience of their own limits, the assessment of their own possibilities, of proportions or even the development of an image of themselves.
- Through material experience, factual competencies are acquired: This includes knowledge about the interaction with other things, haptic experiences or feedback on their own interaction.
- Social skills are developed through social experience: This point includes comparing with others, playing with or against each other, or even adapting to circumstances and engaging in challenges.
Healthy growth needs movement
If the opportunities to move sufficiently in the environment are missing, so on the one hand, the psychological development is also limited. The more diverse the challenges, movement and action situations for children, the more creative action is required. But general growth also needs movement. Physical activity promotes the release of the growth hormone somatropin. This hormone is still very important in adulthood. Too little somatropin leads to more brittle bones, reduced muscle mass or even increased fat storage in the tissues. The entire organism is challenged and stimulated by exercise. Ligaments and tendons strengthen and support the skeleton, and muscle mass is also formed. Some employment opportunities today offer only very one-dimensional options for movement or narrowly defined uses and solutions. The emphasis is placed on imitation. Own play possibilities or alternative interpretations, which promote creativity and the urge to explore, take a back seat. It is therefore very important to create a wide variety of incentives and to provide different challenges. If this is not possible or only possible to a limited extent in one’s own direct environment, courses or clubs offer the necessary support. Learning effects of sports
A wide variety of sports can make a decisive contribution to learning basic skills. New movement patterns improve coordination or flexibility and muscle strength, but also promote social interaction.Children can learn how to deal with successes or failures and develop more self-confidence and trust in themselves. In addition, various values can be taught, rules learned and discipline acquired. The main learning effects are summarized here:
- Team spirit, cooperation with others
- Fitness and endurance
- Body control
- Well-being and body awareness
- Discipline and perseverance
- Concentration
- Ambition and motivation
The whole thing runs thereby playfully and uses the natural drive. Especially when playing sports with others is the fun and the community experience in the foreground. Many of the experiences can be transferred subsequently by the children and young people to other areas of life. A sense of achievement after an effort, for example, boosts self-confidence and creates a link between positive results and personal commitment. The positive effect on the psyche of children and young people has recently been confirmed by various studies.
Promoting physical activity
Basically, a certain urge to move is innate in us from the very beginning. On the one hand, it serves as an impetus to become active on our own initiative and to learn new movement patterns according to the principle of trial and error. On the other hand, it makes sense to spur the children on to greater challenges through targeted instruction, because they cannot master everything on their own without support. It is important to support the children’s own initiative and, if necessary, to steer them in the right direction:
- Playing and moving together: Sharing activities with parents strengthens the parent-child bond. In addition, it creates positive experiences related to playing sports.
- Regular contact with others: Children spur each other to be active. In addition, this can develop various social skills.
- Create child-friendly environment: both in the children’s room and the rest of the apartment, as well as the environment outside should allow space to romp and be active. The easier and faster the play areas are accessible, the more often and also more independently the children can get exercise.
- Praise as positive feedback: In addition to the tangible feedback through their own sensory perception, especially praise or targeted positive reinforcement is a good incentive for further activities.
- Exercise in the fresh air: physical activity in the fresh air has a particularly good effect on health. A regular dose of sunlight and the oxygen kick really crank up the organism.
- Create targeted challenges: Adapted to the age of the children provide new incentives for further development and motivate to try things themselves and learn to master.
- Let help in everyday life: The little ones can also be involved in everyday household activities such as vacuuming or watering flowers. This also trains different movement patterns.
Learn to master challenges
In the club, it is possible for the children to see and assess their performance also in comparison with others. On the one hand, the competition spurs to strive and want to learn new things. On the other hand, the experience in the group is also a positive psychological support. Doing sports is associated with fun and makes for great memories. In addition to the internal competition in the club, from a certain age onwards there are also various other competitions that can have an even more motivating effect as a special event. There are various opportunities for this in both team and individual sports. In soccer tournaments or even city runs, the youngest children can prove themselves in a special setting. The latter are open to all participants, regardless of membership in a sports club. Depending on age and individual abilities, participants can usually choose between different distances. The completely new experience of such a competition in a group creates new incentives and motivation to achieve a set goal. Through positive successes, many develop a great interest in improving and, for example, doing better the next time.The right sport for every age
In infancy, the versatility of different movements is very important. This is addressed in special offers such as parent-child gymnastics. Gradually, the urge to move develops from mere experimentation and trial and error to learning specific sequences. Other disciplines sometimes offer only limited and specialized movement patterns. Therefore, it is not always advisable to urge children to practice a single sport. Especially at this time, young children still want to try things out and seek variety in different disciplines. In this way, more versatile physical and motor skills can be developed. Which sport is suitable from which age, however, also depends strongly on the individual physical and mental development. Due to personal “movement experiences”, only guidelines are possible here. However, deficits can also be made up quickly through targeted support when practicing special disciplines. Maintaining motivation
In three different phases, children are particularly susceptible to adopting a “lazy” lifestyle, according to Dr. Susanna Wiegand of the Charité hospital in Berlin. The toddler phase (2nd to 4th year of life), the time after starting school and puberty are waiting with special challenges or new life circumstances and thus often cause a psychological imbalance. During these phases, parents should pay particular attention to ensuring that the little ones get enough exercise. New incentives, such as trying out a new type of sport or even active activities together, can keep them motivated to exercise.
Physical education in kindergartens and at schools
Many care facilities, kindergartens or later schools today provide more extensive offers to counteract the lack of exercise in children. This ranges from additional course offerings in afternoon care to expanded opportunities to be more physically active between school hours and during breaks. Various practical examples show how diverse corresponding solutions can look here. The challenge here is to reconcile children with different physical activity experiences and physical development. Tasks of the public institutions
Some parents would like to see public institutions take on more responsibility for children’s physical education – and at the same time hand over some of this responsibility. In daycare centers, it is often still easier to encourage the urge to move through active and physically challenging games. In school, however, children are expected to sit still during lessons. In addition, especially in urban environments, there is a lack of opportunities to play, romp and roam around safely and freely outside on the street without supervision. The lack of exercise must then be compensated for elsewhere. Even though parents must not shirk their duties and responsibilities in this area, especially with the youngest children, public agencies in many places are facing up to the changed requirements. Pedagogical perspectives
It is important to make parents aware of the importance of sufficient exercise for the health development of their children right from the start. In this area, too, courses in which adults get active together with their offspring can provide information and knowledge. The earlier children learn that exercise is a natural part of everyday life, for example when they are allowed to let off steam undisturbed without being set a goal, the more positive their experiences with their own bodies will be. Parents in particular, as the most important caregivers, can set a good example here and set an example of an active lifestyle themselves. The longer children stay in other care facilities, the stronger the influence and thus also the necessary guidance for exercise from this side. Educators and childcare staff must be trained accordingly. The educational institutions are also increasingly entering into cooperative ventures with sports clubs in order to bundle competencies and resources. This creates new opportunities and points of contact for the children, where they can pursue their urge to move to their heart‘s content.
