11.10.2011 - Ausgabe: 5/2011

Exercise is the key to healthy growth

By Susanne Krug and Prof. Klaus Bös

Piaget (1991) and Kiphard (1989) already emphasised this interrelation and proposed an integral view of development as a whole. Today we talk of understanding through touch in order to illustrate the significance of movement for the overall development of a child.

Significance of exercise for the healthy growth of children

Exercise and sport are of great significance for the development of children - above all for the development of motor skills but also for the development of their personality. Exercise is the basis for healthy growth and infants come to learn about their body through movement.
At the start their movements are jerky and uncoordinated. The fine motor skills develop after the gross motor skills, movements become smoother and the child gains greater control. Children learn not only about their bodies, but also about their environment through movement. They touch objects, feel their surfaces and learn the laws of practical physics through repeated actions ("If I push my cup from the table it falls down and spills my drink"). These repeated actions serve to improve an infant's elementary skills. Later, at pre-school age, movement behaviour is increased by experience gained from sport. This is supplemented by experiencing emotions and different social key competencies (e.g. agreeing to something and keeping to these agreements, solving conflict situations, communication, helping and accepting help from others, understanding their own strengths and limits as well as those of others) through exercise together with children of the same age, teachers or parents. "Infancy is a time of rapid development. It is characterised by a progressive, strong differentiation of the infant's personality with regard to mobility, cognition, motivation and social behaviour" (Rethorst et al. 2008). Active children have better health indicators, in particular in the areas of fitness, health and wellbeing and social support. In addition, they exhibit fewer medical problems in some fields. This is illustrated by the work group of Sygusch, Brehm and Ungerer-Röhrich 2003 using representative research studies.

Table 1.1 summarises the different levels at which exercise in infancy is of significance for healthy growth.

Bodily development • Development of the musculoskeletal system, development of the senses, development of the nervous system, promotion of posture awareness, improvement of the cardiovascular system, development of the breathing system, stabilisation of the immune system, increasing performance
Development of motor function • Experience of body and movement, perception and coordination, development of ways of moving, realistic estimation of their own capabilities, stress perception – relaxation
Psychosocial development • imparting feelings such as happiness and limits, development of independency, self-confidence, social cooperation, social competencies, handling of stress
Cognitive development • Understanding correlations, development of the central nervous system, attention span / learning abilities, language development, spatial and chronological understanding

(Tab. 1.1: Development levels where exercise has a positive effect (as per Dordel/Kunz, 2005))

Activity guidelines for children and teenagers were developed in the 1990s. The World Health Organisation (WHO 2008) recommends a daily exercise time of at least 60 minutes with moderate or increased physical activity. This is intended to mean physical activities which have an effect on the cardio-vascular system by increasing their pulse rates and making the children sweat. The intention of the WHO with these guidelines is to ensure a normal development for children and teenagers and to achieve healthy effects.

Research findings on the current development level for motor skills

Only 31.9 percent of four-to-five year olds in Germany satisfy the requirements of the WHO activity guidelines (Bös et al. 2009). 35.4 percent of boys and only 28.4 percent of girls achieve the minimum exercise time of 60 minutes of physical activity each day. This can be seen from research into the motor skills carried out as module of a children and teenager health survey (Kinder- und Jugendgesundheitssurveys (KiGGS) by the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin (RKI). This is the first representative data on exercise behaviour and motor skills of children and teenagers obtained in Germany.
According to the motor skills module (Bös et al. 2009), even when today, 52.1 percent of four-to-five year olds exercise in sports clubs for 1.5 hours per week, this is evidently not sufficient to compensate for a lack of daily exercise. Numerous studies show that the motor skill performance of children has worsened by around 10 percent in the last years, (Bös 2003; Dordel 2000, Gaschler 1999, 2000, 2001; Rethorst 2003) and the share of overweight and obese children has risen (Wabitsch 2004).

Causes and consequences of lack of exercise

In today's sedentary culture, the natural need of exercise by children is often neglected through lack of time or is limited due to excessive warnings of danger. In daily life, children often cover the increased distances between day-care centre, clubs, music school and their friends' houses, sitting passively in a car. Built-up areas prevent play outside and playgrounds near busy roads often appear too dangerous to let children play there without supervision, which working parents have too little time for. This means that the children keep themselves busy at home with play consoles or television. These have gained in attraction in our information and entertainment society and are more appealing to today's children than the self-invented activity games outside with friends which were earlier the main leisure activity for children.

A lack of exercise limits the development of motor skills and leads to a lack of fitness. Through this lack of performance, children lose the natural enjoyment of exercise which in turn, leads to an even further passive lifestyle. A lack of exercise also disrupts the balance between the intake and consumption of energy and is often found in connection with an unbalanced diet. Obesity, a further reluctance to exercise and general physical, psychic and social dissatisfaction, round off the vicious circle. In addition, exercise is linked to social contact: Communication between friends is significantly lower during passive leisure time occupations such as watching television, that during play outdoors. The results of this lack of exercise follow the children throughout their whole life and for this reason; they should be given a strong foundation already in their infancy.

Society's responsibilities

The behaviour of adults is the most important role model for children. Adults should radiate pleasure in exercise, exemplify an active daily routine and involve children in physical activities. Only in this way can children enjoy their natural need for exercise and maintain the correct exercise habits. A day-care centre is the first form of institutionalised education and, in today's society, carries a stronger responsibility for the healthy development of the children. Here, lifestyle factors such as exercise and eating habits or the child's attitude to his or her own body, can be influenced at a very early age, as in the meantime, an increasing number of children below the age of three attend a day-care centre.

Physical education as a task for day-care centres

Education and training plans issued by regional authorities for elementary schools takes training in the sense of promotion of basic competencies. Training of physical education is not seen as competition to other types of schooling, but as a supplement providing support for these other fields. In this way, exercise also provides a foundation for other educational and development processes such as language development. Education means autonomy (self-efficacy, self-determination) and solidarity (connection, belonging). For this reason, the provision of free, self-determined, but also supervised and child-specialised opportunities for exercise as proposed by Zimmer (2006) is essential at day-care centres.
On the one hand, a day-care centre should focus on promotion of the motor skills of the children. A variety of developed programmes are available to the skilled pedagogic staff of day-care centres and these are regularly made use of and individually adapted to suit the requirements of the children. The children should, however, also learn to sense their basic physical needs for exercise and to satisfy these. Their drive for action is (still) a need like thirst or hunger. These requirements should be accounted for at the day-care centre not only by regular, organised and planned periods of physical exercise, but also through opportunities to play by themselves at other times when they can find out individually which games and activities are best suited for them.

Motivation und Perspective

Due to the current situation of today's childhood with the education and training plans based on it, the requirements made of a day-care centre have further increased. Above all in the field of physical education these requirements can only be implemented when skilled teachers enjoy sport and exercise themselves and can transmit this along with theoretic knowledge of exercises suitable for children. A range of different training opportunities is intended to support teachers in day-care centres to gain their own practical, physical experience and make use of this along with methodical-didactical procedures, in order to satisfy these new demands.

The main task of skilled pedagogic personal remains however, a focussed and appropriate implementation of physical education in day-care teaching. Some proposed educational targets can be combined well with physical education and should be implemented in this way at day-care centres to provide the children with a healthy and balanced daily routine, which they can become used to and with habits which will accompany them later in life. This way of life is one of the stable character traits which later can often only be corrected with a great deal of work and discipline.

The following are projects for physical education:
• Exercise games (e.g. exercise and language)
• Exercise in the sense of letting of steam and new experiences
• Exercise and relaxation
• Exercise and hygiene
• Exercise and nutrition

Day-care teachers should be aware of the responsibility they carry and implement physical education in a focussed way as well as integrating it into the daily routine. In this way the right foundation can be laid for healthy growth during infancy. In addition, the good lifestyle examples provided at the day-care centre may provoke parents to reconsider their own lifestyles and even to change their own (exercise) behaviour. Exercise is the key to healthy living for adults as well, their whole life long.

 

peb-Praxishandbuch "Gesunde Kita - starke Kinder" (Healthy day-care - strong children)
From practical use for practical use, this was the idea taken by the German "Plattform Ernährung und Bewegung e.V. (peb) (Platform for nutrition and exercise) to write a practical manual on successful promotion of health in infant day-care centres. Along with skilled day-care teachers, other contributors of practical expert articles are Prof. Klaus BÖS (Exercise is the key to healthy growth), Prof. Ulrike UNGERER-RÖHRICH (Strengthening strengths – Treasure hunt in day-care), Eva REICHERT-GARSCHHAMMER (Promotion of health in educational planning) and Prof. Wolfgang TIETZE (Findings of scientific supervision).
Praxishandbuch Gesunde Kita – Starke Kinder!, Plattform Ernährung und Bewegung e.V. (publisher), 1st edition 2011, © 2011 Cornelsen Verlag Scriptor GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin, Germany
ISBN 978-3-589-24708-0.