1 How much physical activity do young children need?

It is important to understand the benefits of physical activity in order to justify why it is vital to support physical development from birth.

Activity 1

Before you look at the current state of physical activity levels in children, test your knowledge on how much physical activity/sedentary screen time children under 5 years of age are recommended to engage in. Don’t worry if you get any of the answers wrong, this week looks to increase your awareness in this area.

For better health, children under 1 year of age should have at least how much physical activity each day? (Note: this includes babies who are not yet mobile being given tummy time throughout the day.)

 

Children of 2 years of age are recommended to have no more than how much sedentary screen time each day? (i.e. sitting still watching a screen.)

 

For better health, 3–4-year-old children should have how much physical activity each day?

 

Following on from the previous question, how many minutes of a 3–4 year old’s physical activity should be at a moderate to vigorous level each day? (i.e. raising the heart rate to a level where they are working hard.)

 

Figures 2 and 3 reveal the UK Chief Medical Officers’ (CMO) physical activity guidelines (Department of Health and Social Care et al., 2019) and the World Health Organization’s (WHO) (2019) recommendations for children under the age of 5.

It is important to note that in the UK the CMO guidelines should be your first source for activity guidelines and that, in contrast to the WHO recommendations, the UK CMO do not provide recommendations for sedentary time or sleep.

Infographic showing UK Chief Medical Officer’s guidelines for physical activity for early years (birth - 5 years)
Figure 2 © UK Chief Medical Officer’s Physical Activity Guidelines, 2019. Reproduced under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0
Infographic showing World Health Organization’s (WHO) physical activity recommendations for children under the age of 5
Figure 3 © Reproduced with the permission of the World Health Organization, https://www.who.int/health-topics/physical-activity

Printable downloads of both these infographics (Figures 2 and 3) are available in the Further resources section at the end of this week.

  • To help support physical development it is important to know how much physical activity children should be engaged in as a minimum at each stage during their first 5 years of life. Are these guidelines given by the UK CMO and WHO met or missed within your current setting with young children?

    If you are not based in the UK, are the UK CMO and WHO guidelines similar to those used in your country? How and why do they differ?

    Do you use specific strategies to create a movement culture in your setting? Your answer may be as a parent with your own child or it may be as a practitioner working in an early years setting.

OpenLearn - Supporting physical development in early childhood
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