Parents have significant influence on children's activity level

Only 7% of Canadian children accumulate the recommended public health guideline of 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) each day (Colley et al., 2011).

A big part of influencing children’s activity level is the amount of encouragement and importance that the parents place on the activity level of their children.  Registering them into different organized sports and or activities is a popular way to ensure and encourage activity. Of course in order to do this, there has to be the accessibility of both what is available and if it is affordable.

Unfortunately the emphasis and importance of “active free play” - unstructured physical activity that takes place outdoors - has decreased by 14% since 2000.  Parents need to be more actively involved in ensuring that children engage in more outdoor activity after school, on the weekends and during lunch and recess breaks.  The idea that safety becomes an issue can be addressed by promoting children playing in groups of two or more in a safe area away from traffic, for example,  parks, outdoor skating rinks and tobogganing hills.  

Another recommendation might be setting up regular play-dates with neighbourhood and/or friends’ children and take turns chaperoning.

Trying more active games at home other than video or computer games which mostly involve only sitting. Get the whole family involved in activity. Try bowling, go for a walk,  build a snowman. The more active the parents tend to be and the more they place importance on regular activity, the more inclined the children will get on board.

Alberta Centre for Active Living

Corinne Cutler is an Exercise Specialist at the Leduc Beaumont Devon Primary Care Network.