Tag Archives: school

Failing Grades for Physical Activity (Again)

Posted on November 14, 2022 | Leave a comment

It’s probably no surprise that the majority of Americans are not active enough. Only about half of adults meet even the minimum recommendation for physical activity of 30 minutes per day, five days per week. Compounding this problem is the fact that many people spend much of their time at work and home being sedentary—some spend over 12 hours per day sitting!

A low level of physical activity is associated with an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, some cancers, and, of course, obesity in adults. Becoming more active is probably the most important change a sedentary person can make to improve their health. The impact is similar to a smoker who quits.

What may be surprising is that this is a problem for children, too. Less than half of children ages 6–11 are active for 60 minutes per day. Among teenagers, it is less than 20%! The health effects of too little activity in kids is similar to that in adults.

The impact of low physical activity on children’s health now and in the future as well as new statistics on activity in kids is the topic of my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week.

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Tagged children, health, physical activity, school, sports, youth

The latest physical activity report card is in. We pretty much failed. Again.

Posted on November 5, 2018 | Leave a comment

What may be surprising is that this is a problem for children, too. Less than half of children ages 6–11 are active for 60 minutes per day. Among teenagers, it is less than 10%! The health effects of too little activity in kids is similar to that in adults. The impact of low physical activity on children’s health now and in the future as well as new statistics on activity in kids is the topic of my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week.

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Posted in Health & Fitness

Tagged children, health, physical activity, school, sports, youth

Physical activity is essential for children. Here’s how they can (and should) get it.

Posted on April 30, 2018 | 1 comment

Regular physical activity is essential for optimal growth, development, and health in children. The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, first published in 2008, recommend that all children and adolescents should do at least one hour of physical activity each day. Most of this time should be spent in moderate or vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity.

Additionally, children should include muscle and bone-strengthening activity at least 3 days a week as part of the 60 or more minutes per day. The importance of physical activity for children and solutions for how to make it work is the topic of my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week.

These activities should be appropriate for their age, be enjoyable, and offer variety. In younger children, active play that involves running, jumping, and climbing meets the call for aerobic as well as muscle and bone-strengthening activity. Older kids can get these types of exercise through sports, physical education in school, or other active pursuits.

Unfortunately, most kids don’t meet these recommendations. According to one survey, only about 30 percent of high school students participated in at least 60 minutes per day of physical activity during the week prior to the survey. That means that less than a third of high school students meet the recommendation! Worse, 14 percent of high school students did not participate in 60 or more minutes of physical activity on any day in the week leading up to the survey.

A different survey showed that only 42 percent of younger children participated in at least 60 minutes of moderate or vigorous activity on most days of the past week. This is surprising considering that, for younger children, pretty much anything that involves being active counts!

So why aren’t kids getting enough activity? As much as it would be nice to blame television and video games, this isn’t the only problem. While it is true that many kids spend nearly as much time sitting in front of a computer or TV screen as they do in school, the real issue is that adults, including parents and educators, don’t encourage participation in activity.

Almost all elementary, middle, and high school age children are in school for at least 6 hours per day, yet less than 10% have access to daily physical education. Other opportunities, including activity breaks during and between classes, recess, and active transportation to and from school are limited. In fact, in an effort to dedicate more time for test preparation, PE and other activities are among the first to be cut.

At home, parental example and encouragement are important determinants for children’s activity. Active parents are likely to have kids who are active, and this lifestyle tends to persist through adolescence and into adulthood. Kids who are encouraged by their parents to play sports or engage in active play or other activities are 65% more likely to do so. Considering that less than half of U.S. adults are active on a daily basis, this positive influence may be missing.

What can we do to promote activity in children in our community? First, most of us could stand to be more active ourselves, so we should start by modeling good activity habits and include our children and grandchildren. Going for a walk in the neighborhood, to the playground, or doing yard work is a good start. Second, we should demand that kids be provided with opportunities for activity in school. Not only is it good for their health, but children who are active in school tend to learn more and do better on tests. Finally, we should limit sedentary pursuits such as video games or watching TV and encourage kids to do something active.

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Posted in Health & Fitness

Tagged activity, play, playground, recess, school, sports

Back to school: Make sure kids are ready to learn

Posted on August 15, 2016 | Leave a comment

Physical activity and good nutrition have long been recognized as essential for promoting good health in adults and children. More and more research suggests that these health behaviors can have beneficial effects beyond health, including how we perform both physically and mentally. The emphasis here is on children in school, but it applies to adults, too. This is the topic of my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week, just in time for the first day of school here.

Unfortunately, taking time for activity and good nutrition is seen as a luxury or a distraction to learning in most schools. Far from being a distraction, physical activity and healthy eating are prerequisites for learning and academic achievement. In short, these often ignored factors can help make sure children are ready to learn.

Regular physical activity is essential for good health, growth, and physical development, including maintaining a healthy body weight. This last point is important given the epidemic of childhood obesity and related health problems, including “adult” diseases like high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.

Current recommendations call for all children to get at least 60 minutes of activity per day. This can include activity at school from physical education classes, recess, other classroom activities as well as games, sports, and unstructured play. Unfortunately, most kids don’t get nearly enough activity at school and many aren’t active at home.

Physical activity is also important for academic performance. Research shows that children who participated in an activity program had better executive control, which includes resisting distractions and maintaining focus, improved memory, and doing better switching between tasks. This is particularly relevant for children with ADHD, but the effects can be seen in all kids. These positive changes can maximize class time and lead to improvements in academic achievement, especially math and reading test scores.

Similarly, good nutrition is also essential for health, growth, development, and academic achievement. Eating a good breakfast improves cognitive function, alertness, and academic performance in students of all ages. It should be no surprise, then, that skipping breakfast impairs cognitive function and academic achievement. This is one reason that many schools offer breakfast to start the day or include a healthy mid-morning snack.

The same is true for lunch, too. A good lunch can support learning in the afternoon and gives a chance to teach kids about good nutrition by providing healthy food that, unfortunately, many children may not get at home.

Schools have a unique opportunity to use physical activity and nutrition to promote health, support academic achievement, and teach healthy habits. Since formal nutrition education is missing from most curriculums and PE programs are being reduced or cut completely, schools must be creative to incorporate these essential subjects.

A way around this problem is to make sure children get a chance to move and play, ideally multiple times during the day. This is what recess is for. Teachers can also incorporate activity and nutrition education in the classroom and get away from the idea that kids must be sitting still to learn. As research shows, quite the opposite is true!

Schools are often hesitant to teach about nutrition and activity because it is thought of as a responsibility of parents, not schools. But most parents don’t teach these good habits at home, which affects what happens at school. Despite the obvious benefits, it will probably take years of effort to change this view.

In the meantime, parents can encourage their kids to be active and make smarter food choices at home so they are ready to learn in school.

Nutrition, exercise, and health information can be confusing. 
But it doesn't have to be that way.
What can I help you with?
 drbrianparr@gmail.com | http://twitter.com/drbrianparr

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Posted in Health & Fitness

Tagged academics, activity, ADHD, breakfast, children, exercise, learning, lunch, physical education, recess, school

What children gain and lose over the summer

Posted on June 27, 2016 | Leave a comment

Summer vacation is a rite of passage for children. Long summer days to play, go to camp, and relax are an important part of growing up. But many educators and health professionals are concerned about what gets lost, and what gets gained, when kids are away from school.

Summer learning loss is a real concern. It is estimated that children lose, on average, two months of reading skills and one month of overall learning over summer break. Those losses must be made up when school starts again in the fall, so teachers spend about six weeks re-teaching material that was covered in the previous grade. That is six weeks that children are not learning at grade level, which certainly has an impact on achievement over time.

Not all kids are affected equally. Much of the disparity in summer learning losses falls along socioeconomic lines. Some children have more opportunities than others to continue learning over the summer through formal educational programs and camps and informal encouragement to read.

To address this issue, many institutions implement summer “school” through classes, on-line learning programs, and encouraging reading at home. Some target the students who need them the most while other programs are instituted for all children. In fact, all three of my kids are completing online learning programs this summer.

Learning losses are not the only concern with an extended break from school. Many children gain more weight over the summer than during the rest of the year. Furthermore, fitness gains made during the school year are frequently lost over the summer. While poor nutrition and a lack of activity in schools is a real concern, many children get more exercise and eat better at school than they do at home. Being at home over the summer can lead to poor eating habits—too much unhealthy food or not enough food in general—and lack of chances to be active.

This is important because the combination of poor nutrition, physical inactivity, and obesity has physical, psychological, and social consequences for children that frequently persist into adulthood. Overweight and obese children are at increased risk for type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and even stroke – conditions usually associated with adulthood. Even if an overweight child does not have these conditions now, he or she is likely on that path. In fact, many experts predict that children born today will be the first generation in history to have a shorter lifespan than their parents due to obesity-related diseases that begin in childhood.

Children who are overweight are also more likely to suffer other consequences including lower self-esteem, social functioning, and academic performance. Overweight children are also less likely to play sports or participate in other forms of physical activity, which creates a cycle leading to poorer health and, potentially, poorer academic success.

Now that school is almost out for the summer, this is a critical time of year to focus on good nutrition, physical activity, and continued reading and learning to help prevent a summertime slump in health and academics. Schools can only do so much, so adults should model good diet, activity, and reading behaviors themselves. A good place to start is by turning off the TV and reading a book or going outside to play. It’s something all of us—adults and children—will benefit from.

Nutrition, exercise, and health information can be confusing. 
But it doesn't have to be that way.
What can I help you with?
 drbrianparr@gmail.com | http://twitter.com/drbrianparr

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Posted in Health & Fitness explainer, Uncategorized

Tagged childhood obesity, obesity, school, summer, summer vacation

Sometimes kids do get good activity and nutrition education in school. Here are two examples.

Posted on August 14, 2015 | Leave a comment

Earlier this week I wrote about the fact that most children will miss any meaningful education about nutrition, activity, and health when they head back to school. But this isn’t always the case. Some schools include health education in the curriculum, but most don’t. But others do promote healthy eating and exercise elsewhere in the curriculum (daily PE, for example), opportunities for activity throughout the day (recess, letting kids move around in the classroom), and providing healthy meals and snacks.

This is critically important, since good nutrition and physical activity are necessary prerequisites for children to learn and grow.

Sometimes I hear about schools that have implemented robust health education programs and individual teachers who make an effort to add activity and nutrition to the “testable” subjects they teach. I am also familiar with two educators who have made nutrition and physical activity a priority both inside on outside the classroom.

One is my brother (@mrkevinparr), a fourth grade teacher in Washington state. Several years ago he decided to address the childhood obesity problem he saw among his students by teaching about healthy eating. Since there was no room in the curriculum for this topic, he created a way to do it while teaching math. This inspired the students to think beyond their class and organize a community health fair.

The other is a longtime friend who was a principal of an elementary school (now district superintendent) in Michigan. He made physical activity a priority through several initiatives including implementing a walking school bus, installing a track around the playground, and encouraging teachers and students to exercise before, during, and after school. (Check out this video!)

So…it can be done, even in the context of an environment that doesn’t support teaching healthy habits. This isn’t to say that parents don’t play an important role in teaching their children healthy habits. But many parents don’t (or don’t know how). Considering the importance of healthy eating and activity for achievement in school and in life in general, schools are a natural place to address these topics.

Nutrition, exercise, and health information can be confusing. 
But it doesn't have to be that way.
What can I help you with?
 drbrianparr@gmail.com | http://twitter.com/drbrianparr

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Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged back to school; school lunch, children, education, PE, physical activity, physical education, play, recess, school, sitting

Back to school 2015: What kids will STILL be missing!

Posted on August 10, 2015 | Leave a comment

My Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week is about the experience of heading back to school. But it’s really about what most kids won’t experience when they are in school—any meaningful education about nutrition, activity, and health.

It’s back to school time for kids in our area. Students, parents, and teachers are starting another school year filled with opportunities for children to learn and grow through math and science, reading and writing, and art and music. To be sure, this is time well spent since these subjects help kids build a strong foundation that will help them succeed in school and beyond, something that is widely understood and appreciated.

But children should also learn about good nutrition and physical activity, since both good health and good education are essential for lifelong happiness and success. In most schools, though, most kids won’t experience much meaningful education about nutrition, activity, and health. In fact, opportunities for children to be active in school, either through formal physical education or more informal play and recess, has declined over the years. And good nutrition isn’t likely to get much classroom time at any level and the food served in most schools hardly sends a positive message about healthy eating. These are missed opportunities!

The message that children need to eat breakfast before school is well-known and many schools offer breakfast for kids who don’t get it at home. Similarly, lunch is an important part of the school day. In addition to providing energy to support growth and learning, these meals also present an opportunity to teach children about healthy eating since formal nutrition education isn’t part of the curriculum at most schools.

The same is true for physical activity. Research shows that activity can positively affect several factors that are related to academic performance. These include skills (attention, concentration, and memory), behaviors (classroom conduct and homework completion), and academic achievement (test scores and grades).

The effect of physical activity on brain may be due to physiological adaptations that are associated with enhanced attention, better information processing and recall, and improved attitudes. And it doesn’t seem to matter if the activity is delivered through physical education classes, classroom activity, recess (especially outdoors), or extracurricular activity—it’s the movement that matters!

The point is that good nutrition and physical activity support academic success and including them in schools is a natural fit. Research and practical experience shows that nutrition and physical activity have a positive effect on learning. In many ways, health education is just as important as reading and math, topics schools don’t trust parents to teach on their own, to future success.

Some argue that parents, not schools, should be responsible for promoting physical activity and good nutrition. I disagree! Since nutrition and activity improve academic performance, schools are the perfect place to teach about healthy lifestyles. There is also no guarantee that children will have opportunities to eat well or be physically active when they go home, so school may be the best chance for many kids to get these benefits.

Given that most children will get only limited opportunities for physical activity and good nutrition school, these topics necessarily become “homework.” Since most of us could stand to be more active and eat healthier ourselves, we should start by modeling good habits for our children and grandchildren.

Going for a walk in the neighborhood, going to the playground, or doing yard work along with preparing healthy meals and snacks is a good start. Parents and community members should also express their concerns to lawmakers and administrators in an effort to get more health education included in the school day. We should treat nutrition and activity like we treat other subjects. How would you feel if your child’s school wasn’t teaching math?

This isn’t new, of course. I have written about the both the importance of physical activity for growth and learning for children (and adults, too) and the impact of these missed opportunities before. And I’m certainly not the only one to take notice. Probably the most widely known advocate in this area is Jamie Oliver, and his efforts made nutrition and health in schools topics for discussion among parents, teachers, administrators, and politicians alike.

Nutrition, exercise, and health information can be confusing. 
But it doesn't have to be that way.
What can I help you with?
 drbrianparr@gmail.com | http://twitter.com/drbrianparr

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Posted in Health & Fitness

Tagged back to school; school lunch, children, education, PE, physical activity, physical education, play, recess, school, sitting

What parents and schools can do to make sure kids are ready to learn

Posted on October 27, 2014 | Leave a comment

In the meantime, parents can encourage their kids to be active and make smarter food choices at home so they are ready to learn in school.

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Posted in Health & Fitness

Tagged ADHD, childhood obesity, children, classroom activity, diabetes, exercise, high blood pressure, kids, nutrition, physical activity, physical education, recess, school

Physical activity at school in two infographics

Posted on March 7, 2014 | Leave a comment

This week I came across two infographics explaining the benefits of including physical activity in the school day and ways kids can be active at school.

Having opportunities to be active throughout the day benefits children in many ways, from improving their health, helping them maintain a healthy weight, and promoting learning. In fact, physical activity through recess, structured PE class, and other unstructured activities is absent at many schools. This represents a missed opportunity to teach children about the importance of being active.

According to these infographics, though, engineering activity into the school doesn’t have to be difficult. And including physical activity in the school day makes children believe it is important (which it is) and helps develop habits that will last into adulthood.