Thursday, April 19, 2012

Choices Increase Physical Activity in Children


If you want to increase physical activity time in your children here are two simple tips. Provide choices and encourage mastery of a skill. A recent study indicated that providing children with a choice of active toys increased physical activity time by nearly 200% for girls and 42% for boys. The active toys that were used included mini hockey, bean bag toss combined with tic-tac-toe, mini indoor basketball and jump rope. In a second study researchers looked at the intrinsic motivation in children for physical activity time. Using exergames (ie Wii), the researchers concluded that combining choice with mastery of a game resulted in the greatest increase in physical activity time.

Need ideas for active play?  Check out this collection of ebooks with active play ideas.

Reference: Medical Express. Kids get more active when given more toy choices, studies show. Retrieved from the web on 4/18/12 at http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-kids-toy-choices.html

1 comment:

  1. To increase physical activity, children need physical education, safe routes to walk and ride their bikes to school, parks and access to playgrounds and community centers.

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