Konferencer - Afsluttede
International Play Association
Hong Kong
January 2008
Play for health
- Evidence based approaches in preschool playgrounds
Jeanette Fich Jespersen, KOMPAN Play Institute, International Manager
The growth in overweigth and obesity has made playgrounds and parks more relevant than ever. The awareness that parks and playgrounds matter in the prevention of overweight in children has grown. Some cities have made an extra effort to plan activity into parks. Others have made cross-departmental solutions and opened school yards up for play after school hours. But do we know what actually works to increase self chosen outdoor physical activity for our children?
Last autumn the KOMPAN Play Institute embarked on a pilot study run byThe Institute of Sport Sciences and Clinical Biomechanics at the University of Southern Denmark. The men behind the survey were Karsten Froberg and Lars Bo Andersen who last year established that children need a minimum of 90 minutes moderate physical activity a day to stay physically fit. The pilot study should investigate the activity of preschool children in 7 schools. The seventh preschool was the Four Seasons Preschool, a preschool built and planned on the KOMPAN philosophy of children’s right to play outdoors in a well planned play garden.
The results were quite remarkable. The only children that reached the WHO recommended activity level of merely 60 minutes a day were The Four Seasons’. In the remaining six preschools average activity was much lower, but levels were almost identical. Even though we might feel that this has been documented before, the scientists had not expected these big differences. So what we consider old news surprised the experienced and empirically working scientists.
This demonstrates a strange schism: on the one hand the actual preschool study makes it possible to assert that free outdoor play in a well planned play garden is more efficient for 3-6yearold children’s activity levels than the more adult directed environments of the traditional preschools. On the other hand scientists will claim that the survey only justifies an indication. To create evidence takes more than 7 preschools. And then we still haven’t had evidence of what is key for activity: the amount or design of space, the equipment, the adult attitude – or specific combinations of these.
Observations of play professionals are well worth acknowledging when it comes to indications of what works or doesn’t work for the children. As soon as we deal with new initiatives or user segments, though, these experiences do not necessarily suffice. It might even prove wrong to trust experience due to the rapid changes in lifestyles today. Thus updating of knowledge is paramount in park and playground planning. Furthermore, the observations and experiences are usually too meager an argument to convince the budget planners and politicians. Should observations succeed in changing minds at this level, they need back up from evidence based proof.
Literature:
Physical Activity among Preschool Children, by Anders Grøntved(1), Grete Skøtt Pedersen(2) and Karsten Froberg(1), (1)Institute of Sport Sciences and Clinical Biomechanics, University of Southern Denmark, (2)Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark 2007
Download:
Download KOMPAN Play Institute abstracts from the conference
Download Powerpoint presentation
Evidence based approaches to teen play needs
Jeanette Fich Jespersen, MA
KOMPAN Play Institute, International Manager
The decline of physical activity in teenagers has made outdoor play areas more relevant than ever as motivation frameworks for teenage activity. Some cities have made an extra effort to plan with young people and their needs for playful activity and socializing in mind. Even more cities have a dream of doing something, as the number of actual places for young teen users is alarmingly low. The challenge of erecting places for teens is to know what actually works when it comes to increasing self chosen outdoor physical activity for young people. What do they like, what do they want and what does it take to target their needs succesfully?
The KOMPAN Play Institute is about to embark on a campaign to raise the public awareness of young peoples play needs out of doors. The campaign is based on validated documentation and research. As the interest in and need for providing play possibilities for young people has grown, due to the decline of physical activity in the age group, the need for documented knowledge on what is actually their needs has increased. The question can be approached in many ways: in dealing with this age group, international teen focus groups turned out to be a valid way. All too often we find that adult solutions have not taken needs of youth today into consideration but have been made on a wrong basis, however well meaning, ideologically valid or emotionally appealing it may seem. The dilemma is that focus groups, containing 30-40 young people would hardly suffice to give us a documented impression on teen habits, needs and wishes of 2007-2008. We would need a validation – a quantified approach to confirm or de-confirm the findings of the focus group. Epinion, a exit-poll bureau, asked 1040 13-16yearolds their habits, preferences and wishes for the future when it comes to outdoor activity and play. And the answers were quite surprising: More girls than boys see shopping as their main outdoor physical activity. Boys predominantly do ball games and skate boards. Girls predominantly take walks in nature. 13 yearolds in this survey as well move far less than 16yearolds. And the vast majority of 13-16yearolds found the need for more outdoor activity for teens urgent.
Literature
Physical activity and clustered cardiovascular risk in children: a cross-sectional study, in The Lancet, 2006, 368:299-304, Lars Bo Andersen, Karsten Froberg et alt. (The European Youth Heart Study)
Play for Health, ed. Jeanette Fich Jespersen, KOMPAN Play Institute, Denmark 2006
Survey of 13-16yearolds wishes for play and outdoor activity, to be publised December 2007, Epinion and KOMPAN
Study on young people’s lifestyles and sedentariness and the role of sport in the context of education and as a means of restoring the balance, Brettschneider and Naul, Paderborn and Duisburg-Essen, 2004
Download:
Download KOMPAN Play Institute abstracts from the conference
| 
