Physical Activity For Children And Youth

Physical Activity For Children And Youth

            For children and young people, physical activity includes play, games, sports, transportation, chores, recreation, physical education, or planned exercise, in the context of family, school, and community activities. From birth through age 5, kid's bodies are growing every day, in every way. Being physically active improves children's overall health. When they exercise, kids just feel good.

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Physical activity helps children:

1) Stay at a healthy weight

2) Reduce their risk of feeling stressed or depressed and developing obesity-related illnesses (type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and unhealthy cholesterol levels)  

3) Build their strength, flexibility, and endurance

4) Enhance their motor skills, social skills, and brain development

5) Develop and maintain strong bones

6) Sleep better

7) Feel confident about themselves and their bodies as they grow

More and more evidence shows that children who are active tend to have fewer behavioral and disciplinary problems, do better in school, and have longer attention spans in class.

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Children and youth should be physically active every day as part of a healthy lifestyle. This helps them to build strong bones and strengthen muscles, maintain flexibility, achieve a healthy weight, improve fitness, improve self-esteem, meet new friends and increase relaxation.

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If you can make physical activity enjoyable and if you can be physically active with your child, you will increase the chance that physical activity will become part of your child's everyday life. 

Here are some ways to make physical activity a part of your child's day:

1) Plan family activities like hiking, cycling, playing ball, skating, throwing a frisbee and dancing.

2) Provide your child with opportunities to learn skills such as running, jumping, throwing, catching and kicking.

3) Balance your child's day with physical activities that are fun, informal and unstructured.

4) Encourage a wide range of activities in addition to organized sports such as planting a garden, playing chase, tobogganing, etc.

5) Help your child find a healthy balance between watching TV, surfing the Internet, and being active.

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