The Pica Perspective

Let's Hear It for Noncompetitive Play!

Now here's some research that does my heart good. A study presented at the 55th Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine has shown that the structuring of children's games has a significant impact on energy expenditure, and that kids accrue more physical activity in non-elimination games.

My first impulse is to say, "Well, duh!" But I'm going to go with my second impulse, which is to be grateful to have evidence to back up what I've been saying all along!

A research team led by Karla Bruggeman and David Dzewaltowski, Ph.D., measured activity during both elimination and non-elimination games and found that, due to not having to spend time on the sidelines, the children in the latter group accumulated significantly more moderate and vigorous physical activity than those in the former group.

"This study highlights the importance of quality over quantity in a physical activity session for children," said Bruggeman. "It is important to promote non-elimination games to increase physical activity participation, but also important to monitor levels of enjoyment to foster a healthy, fun environment in youth."

Continual participation, of course, is the goal if we're going to get and keep children physically active. But it's also the goal if we're going to ensure that children continue to enjoy physical activity. Children start off life with a love of movement, but too often we squash it out of them by making their early games all about winning. A child who's constantly eliminated in games will too often develop a distaste for physical activity in general. After all, being eliminated feels lousy.

What Keeps Kids Inside

Well, I knew fear and competition from electronics were keeping kids indoors; but I never suspected flip-flops, mulch, and no coats as culprits! But that's exactly what a new study has found...

Because I want to do this study justice (it's really important that we give this issue some thought), I'm going to simply reprint the entire press release here. I'd love to get your thoughts on this!

CINCINNATI, April 30 /PRNewswire/ -- At a time when over half of US
children (aged 3-6) are in child care centers, and growing concern over
childhood obesity has led physicians to focus on whether children are
getting enough physical activity, a new study of outdoor physical activity
at child care centers, conducted by researchers at Cincinnati Children's
Hospital Medical Center, has identified some surprising reasons why the
kids may be staying inside. The study, will be presented May 5 at the
annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in Honolulu, Hawaii.

    "It's things we never expected, from flip flops, mulch near the
playground, children who come to child care without a coat on chilly days,
to teachers talking or texting on cell phones while they were supposed to
be supervising the children," according to Kristen Copeland, M.D., lead
author of the study which was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood
Institute. She noted that because there are so many benefits of physical
activity for children -- from prevention of obesity, to better
concentration and development of gross motor skills -- it's important to
know what barriers to physical activity may exist at child-care centers.

    "With so many American preschool-aged children in child care centers,
and previous reports that the amount of physical activity children get
varies widely across different centers, we wanted to explore what some of
the barriers to physical activity at these centers might be," said Dr.
Copeland, a physician scientist and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in
the Division of General and Community Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's.
According to the most recent statistics 74% of US children aged 3-6 years
are in some form of non-parental child care. 56% percent of 3-6 year old
children spend time in centers, including child care centers and
preschools. Her team began by exploring child-care center staff members'
perceptions of barriers to children's physical activity. They conducted
focus groups with 49 staff members from 34 child-care centers in the
Cincinnati area (including Montessori, Head Start and centers in the inner
city and suburban areas) as the first of several studies on this subject.

    "We found several previously unreported barriers that meant kids had to
stay inside, including inappropriate footwear such as flip flops and
inappropriate clothing for the weather," said Dr. Copeland. In some child
care centers, if one child in the group shows up without a coat on a chilly
day, she noted, that means the whole group has to stay inside. Even more
surprising to the researchers was the fact that the child-care staff
members said some parents appear to intentionally keep their children's
coats (or send children without coats) so they'd have to stay inside, which
staff attributed to parents' concerns about the child getting injured or
dirty, or a having a cold that may be exacerbated by cold weather.

    Teachers said they also felt pressure from some parents who were more
concerned with children spending time on cognitive skills, such as reading
and writing, than on the gross motor and socio-emotional skills (such as
kicking a ball or negotiating with another child for a turn on the slide)
that are best learned on the playground.

    Then there was the mulch factor. "The staff members who participated in
the groups were really concerned about mulch in the play area," said Dr.
Copeland. "Many said that the kids eat the mulch, or use it as weapons, or
it gets caught in their shoes. It also requires constant upkeep. It's
certainly not something that we had anticipated as an issue, but judging by
the amount of and intensity of the discussions among child care teachers,
it really is."

    Dr. Copeland said the child-care center staff recognized that they
themselves could sometimes serve as a barrier to children's physical
activity. "We heard reports of teachers talking or texting on cell phones
instead of interacting with the children while on the playground," said Dr.
Copeland. She continued, "We found that a staff member who doesn't like
going outside -- maybe she's not a cold-weather person, or she thinks it's
too much work to bundle up and unbundle the children on a cold day -- could
act as a gatekeeper to the playground." In some cases, staff reported that
their own issues with being overweight prevented them from encouraging
children's physical activity.

    "This initial qualitative research has identified a number of issues
that we will be exploring in subsequent studies," noted Dr.Copeland.
"Clearly this is a complex issue -- but finding out what the barriers are
is the first step in addressing the problem and getting more kids involved
in more much-needed physical activity."

    The PAS meeting, sponsored by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the
American Pediatric Society, the Society for Pediatric Research and the
Ambulatory Pediatric Association, is the largest international meeting to
focus on research in child health.

    Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, one of the leading
pediatric research institutions in the nation, is dedicated to changing the
outcome for children throughout the world. Cincinnati Children's ranks
second among all pediatric institutions in the United States in grants from
the National Institutes of Health. It has an established tradition of
research excellence, with discoveries including the Sabin oral polio
vaccine, the surfactant preparation that saves the lives of thousands of
premature infants each year, and a rotavirus vaccine that saves the lives
of hundreds of thousands of infants around the world each year. Current
strategic directions include the translation of basic laboratory research
into the development of novel therapeutics for the treatment of disease,
and furthering the development of personalized and predictive medicine.
Additional information can be found at http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org.

Celebrate Earth Day!

It probably won't surprise you to learn that, according to reports, fewer than 10% of U.S. children currently learn about nature from being outside. Instead, one-third of them learn about it at school, and more than one-half of them learn about it via such electronic devices as computers and television!

Surely you don't need me to convince you that books and electronics offer no substitute for the real thing. Being outdoors is an experiences of the senses (which is how much of young children's learning takes place). Outside there are myriad amazing things to see: creatures in the clouds, hummingbirds hovering, and four-leaf clovers. To hear: birdsong, leaves rustling in the breeze, brooks babbling. To smell: lilacs, the rain-soaked ground, and Concord grapes (a favorite scent from my childhood; every time I smell it I'm transported back in time). To touch: the velvety softness of a petal, the fuzziness of a pussy willow, a fallen feather, the bark of a tree, or mud puddles. There are even things to taste, like a freshly picked blueberry or, in the winter, freshly fallen snow.

Do you remember how even the simplest foods taste better outside? Somehow, a peanut butter sandwich is just a sandwich when it's eaten in the kitchen. But make it part of a picnic, and suddenly it's special!

If T-ball and soccer are among your child's activities, you may believe she is indeed spending plenty of time outdoors. And while it's true she may be getting fresh air and sunshine (both important!), such organized activities don't allow for the appreciation of nature that outdoor experiences are meant to provide. When free to explore the outdoors on her own, she can lie on her back and absorb the feel of the grass against her skin, or track a caterpillar's progress. Heaven forbid she be doing either of those things during an organized game!

How about taking a "senses walk" on this Earth Day? Whether you walk around the backyard or around the block, you and your child can discover how many things you can hear, smell, or touch. How many red things can you see? How many natural things? An activity like this serves so many purposes! It stimulates the senses, provides physical activity, heightens awareness of the surrounding beauty, offers science lessons, and fosters a love of nature. Choose one sense to focus on today and then tomorrow, when it's no longer Earth Day, go outside and choose another to explore!

Time Just to Be

The stories I hear from parents never cease to amaze me. Like the one from the mom who was feeling pressured to enroll her two-and-a-half-year-old in the local soccer program -- the local, competitive soccer program!

"Our town," she said, "is very much into pushing children to compete and succeed. And I know other parents are looking at me as though I'm failing my child, but I'm not going to give in to the pressure. I'm not enrolling her in all these programs at age two."

Good for her! Whether it's a fear that their children won't get into the college of their choice, fear that they'll never find their passions, or fear that a child who isn't constantly engaged in organized activities will become lazy and unmotivated -- too many of today's parents are responsible for their children being overscheduled, with no time just to be.

What happens when a child's time is scheduled and programmed -- directed by someone else -- from morning 'til night, day after day? As one mother wrote to me: "If the parents work a full day and the children are in a traditional school, the child goes to care before school at around 7:30 AM, then goes to school, then goes to after-school care until around 5:30 PM. Then they have two hours of homework. If you add in one sport per season, they have two hours of practice/games once or twice a week. So the child's 'workday' is more than twelve hours!"

In addition to the stress is causes, an overscheduled, overprogrammed life at an early age assures that the child will never be able to entertain herself. Will never be able to live inside her own head. To deal with solitude or quiet time. She may not get much of it as an adult, but for her sake I hope there will be some. And when there is, it would be awfully sad if she felt panicked at the idea of having to keep herself amused. If she felt she absolutely had to be in the company of others.

If parents want their children to grow up to be resourceful, they have to make sure their kids start practicing now. That means they have to ensure their children have plenty of unstructured time -- preferably in big, uninterrupted chunks.

Rebecca Isbell, early childhood educator and author, says that the chunks of time children need for uninterrupted play will vary according to their level of development. Toddlers, she maintains, require a minimum of 30 minutes to remain in play activities that interest them. Preschoolers need 45 to 60 minutes. And early elementary children who are focused on their play may need an hour or more to bring their work to a conclusion.

Here are some questions excerpted from my book, A Running Start:

• If children begin living like adults in childhood, what will they have to look forward to?
• What's to ensure they won't be burned out from all the pushing and pressure before they've even reached puberty?
• If we've caused them to miss the magic of childhood, what will kids later draw upon to cope with the trials and tribulations of adulthood?
• What will become of the childlike nature adults call on when they need reminding of the delight found in simple things -- when they need to bring out the playfulness that makes life worth living?
• What joy will our children find as adults if striving to "succeed" becomes life's sole purpose?

Withholding Recess as Punishment

How many of you have children in schools where recess is withheld as punishment -- or as a way to catch up on school- or homework?

Last week I came across an article written by a superintendent in South Dakota. It was called "Recess Restriction Is a Useful Tool that Shall Remain in the Toolbox." (I'd send you there, but if you want to see an article that's more than 7 days old in The Daily Republic, you have to pay for it!) And as you can tell from the title, this guy is in favor of withholding recess when teachers felt it was necessary. He feels it's one of the few resources teachers have when it comes to managing the children, and he made it clear that he believes it works.

I could feel my hair get whiter as I read it! It was another one of those times when I wondered why we have so much excellent research if no one is going to pay attention to it -- particularly the people who should be paying attention, like educators and educational administrators?!

The research is quite clear on the benefits of recess. Studies as far back as 1885 and 1901 and up to the present have shown that individuals (but especially children) produce more when their efforts are distributed (breaks are included) than when concentrated (work is conducted in longer periods). Moreover, Dr. Olga Jarrett and her colleagues conducted a study that determined 15 minutes of recess resulted in the children being 5% more on-task and 9% less fidgety, which translated into 20 minutes saved during the day.

Hello. Is anybody listening?

Even if we didn't have a childhood obesity crisis on our hands (and we most certainly do), recess and the outdoor light would be essential to children's academic success. And since that's so obviously what matters most in our society, it's truly unbelievable that this particular research is being ignored -- or, at the very least, unheeded.

And here's another pertinent bit of information: Experimental studies and anecdotal evidence indicate that the same children tend to miss all or part of recess every day. Translation: The threat of missing recess is an ineffective "tool in the toolbox."

On Thursday I'll be interviewing the CEO of the National PTA for Body, Mind and Child. I'll be talking to her specifically about the PTA's support of recess and PE and want to explore the issue of what happens when parents and teachers don't see eye to eye (e.g., when parents want their children to have recess no matter what and teachers disagree). If there are questions you'd like me to ask -- or if you just want to contribute your thoughts to this conversation -- post your comments here or e-mail me at raepica@movingandlearning.com.

Providing Feedback to the Little Ones - Part 2

As promised in Tuesday's blog (March 11th), here are some suggestions for offering feedback in developmentally appropriate ways -- ways that will be most helpful to young children:

• Make one correction at a time. Young children can't absorb multiple pieces of information.
• Use words you're sure a child can understand. "Go a little faster" makes a lot more sense to a preschooler than "Pick up the pace a bit."
• Correct the behavior, not the child. "See if you can try it with all of your toes touching the floor," as opposed to "You're walking wrong."
• A "sandwich" approach helps cushion the criticism. An example of this approach is: "That jump was really high. Make sure you bend your knees a lot when you come down. But you swung your arms to get really high with that jump." You'll notice that the constructive criticism is "sandwiched" between two positive remarks.
• Make your statements in the positive. For example, "Bend your knees a lot when you come down" is preferable to "Don't come down with straight legs." The reasoning has more to do with a child's developmental stage than with promoting self-esteem: young children often fail to hear the "don't" part of an instruction. In the example here, the child will most likely hear the "straight legs" part and do the opposite of what you suggested.
• When possible, use demonstration in combination with your words. The more senses used in the learning process, the more children retain. So if you demonstrate landing with bent knees as you explain it, the child has a better chance of understanding what you mean.
• Don't compare a child with anyone else! This serves no purpose except to create alienation between your child and whoever you're comparing him to.
• Remember, you're also modeling playfulness, and in true play there are no mistakes. That doesn't imply mistakes aren't made. Rather, it means that if a child doesn't get something right the first time, she gets a "do-over" -- but only if she wants one! (Remember do-overs -- and how freeing they can be?) Most likely, she's going to want to accomplish whatever you've shown her, and she will try over and over again -- sometimes while you're watching and sometimes when you're not. But she'll try because she wants to -- not because someone insists she should. (You may be relieved to know that in youth sports the most skilled players are typically those who initiate practice themselves and not those who are externally motivated by parents or coaches.)
• Use neutral, as opposed to judgmental, wording. Education experts say to avoid "moralizing" or judging when providing feedback. For example, a jump isn't "good" or "bad." A jump is either light or heavy, or high or low. If we use the former, we haven't told the child anything helpful. If we use the latter, however, we've provided both vocabulary for what the child did and useful specifics.

Finally, it's been said that coaches should use a four-to-one ratio of positive to negative remarks. That may be so, but I need to make it clear that "positive remarks" does not mean praise, praise, false praise, and more praise. If you really want to help a child improve skills, make sure praise is both deserved and specific. Together with your instructive feedback, your praise should provide information she can use to improve her skills.

Providing Feedback to the Little Ones

It's hard to watch a child -- especially your own child -- do something incorrectly and resist the urge to "fix" it. Often, our solution is to offer constructive criticism, a practice we see as both helpful and harmless. Unfortunately, what we say may be neither.

Young children possess two means of acquiring information about their abilities. The first is through exploration and discovery. A child sees someone else do a forward roll and becomes excited about the possibility that he could do it, too. So in the yard, in the living room, and wherever else he has the chance, he practices this move. The first couple of times, he can't get past the top of his head, so he eventually figures out he should tuck his chin to his chest. That helps, but once he does get over he ends up flat on his back, so he learns to make his whole body rounder. If he wants to do more than one in a row, he finally determines that if he bends his knees, keeps them bent, and finishes with his feet flat on the ground, it's much easier to launch into a second roll. That's self-feedback.

The second way children acquire information about themselves is through feedback from parents and other important adults in their lives. Such feedback is significant to them. They have a strong innate desire to feel competent and a compelling need to please the important adults in their lives. This makes for a powerful one-two punch and means we, as adults, have a responsibility to handle their feelings with care.

Now, you know that I'm not all about inappropriate praise or "giving" children self-esteem; but I feel strongly that constructive criticism has to be doled out in ways that are conducive with what we know about child development. With that in mind, the first thing to realize about constructive criticism is that to children it's just criticism. Furthermore, they don't always understand that our words are related to a behavior (their failure to bend their knees upon landing from a jump, for instance) and not to them as people.

Of course, if your child frequently lands her jumps with straight legs, or walks with her feet rolling in, or throws "like a girl," you're going to want to help her. And if the corrections appear to be something she can't discover on her own -- through self-feedback -- you should help her. You simply want to approach such assistance in the best way possible. So, in Friday's blog, I'll offer plenty of suggestions for how you can do that! Stay tuned...

What to Look for in an Organized Program

In the latest (March) issue of Parents Magazine, I'm quoted in a piece on the best "classes" for toddlers. With that in mind, I thought I'd expand on my thoughts here...

Even if your little one is too young for organized sports (and you know I think they are if they're under 8), you may still want to participate in some kind of structured physical activity program. You may be looking for regularly scheduled opportunities for you and your child to socialize -- to get together and have fun with other parents and children -- or to set aside a certain time each week where physical activity is guaranteed. If so, you won't have any trouble finding programs from which to choose. The difficulty may lie in choosing the right one.

Many centers, in the tradition of playgrounds, provide space, equipment, and opportunities for moving and socializing. Some offer Mommy/Daddy-and-me "classes" for babies and toddlers. Some offer drop-off programs for preschoolers. The latter type should have a small participant-to-instructor ratio (no more than 10 children per adult). With any kind of program, the instructors should be well trained, with special understanding of early childhood. The equipment will be child-sized, but they should also be of the types that were originally created with children in mind. That means there are no treadmills or barbells -- no pieces initially designed for adults but later miniaturized for children. Finally, the program must have a philosophy of fun first -- of play, as opposed to regimen.

Beware of programs that promise to improve your child's physical prowess, "accelerate" his skill development, or get him "pumped up" (increase his muscle strength). The first two aren't physically possible. The final promise is somewhat of a possibility, but generally strength training isn't appropriate for children under 12 (primarily because the bodies of younger children aren't yet fully developed). Even if getting pumped up were a possibility, because fitness is fleeting -- an ongoing process, as opposed to a finished product -- any pumping up gained will be lost as soon as your child stops working at it.

If your child is still a baby, it's best to avoid infant exercise programs that call for working your little one's limbs. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) warns against programs in which a baby's limbs are exercised, held in various positions, or otherwise manipulated. Naturally, you wouldn't intentionally push beyond your baby's limits. Still, it's all too easy to do, and pediatricians are seeing more fractures and muscle strains as a result of programs like these.

Before making a decision, visit the centers you're considering and bring your child with you. If the program is intended for infants, the emphasis should be on ensuring one-on-one time between you and your baby, during which you gently play and move together. If your child is older, ask yourself which programs look like the most fun. Which offer a balance between structure and free choice for the children? Are their goals developmentally appropriate? How well do the instructors interact with the children? Most important, which program is your child most enthusiastic about?

Play, Private Speech, & Self-Regulation

Yesterday on National Public Radio's Morning Edition, a program called "Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills" aired. The discussion involved the "commercialization and co-optation of child's play" and its effects on private speech and self-regulation.

Private speech is the kind of talking kids do to themselves when they're playing: figuring out what they're going to do and how they're going to do it. It's a skill that, when carried over into adulthood, helps individuals overcome problems and manage emotions. But because fewer children are playing "make-believe" and engaging in unstructured activity, private speech is a skill that's disappearing.

So, too, is the ability to self-regulate disappearing. According to the article at NPR's website, "Kids with good self-regulation are able to control their emotions and behavior, resist impulses, and exert self-control and discipline." No small feats.

Accompanying the article are suggestions for "better ways to play." Among the suggested activities is Simon Says, an activity I've always liked (when modified for constant participation) for its promotion of body-part identification and active listening skills. It never occurred to me that this simple game is also great for promoting self-regulation because, in order to succeed at it, children have to think before they act and not do something!

                                                                     
This week's featured interview on BAM Radio is "Connecting Your Child with Nature," with guest David Sobel, author of Beyond Ecophobia: Reclaiming the Heart in Nature. In it, David discusses some of the ways in which children play in unstructured ways outdoors!

Are You Too Tired to Play with Your Kids?

According to a study published this week, almost half of the parents in the United Kingdom say they don't have the energy to play with their children. Here's the rest of what the study reported:

• Parents who spend time doing physical activity with their under 10 year olds sleep better, are less likely to feel stressed, and have better behaved children.

• Almost half (46%) of parents questioned said that the stresses of everyday life left them sapped of any energy to play actively with their children.

•   On average, almost two thirds (64%) of UK parents spend less than an hour each day in energetic activity with their child.

• Of the parents interviewed, more than a quarter (26%) said they spent less than 20 minutes a day exercising with their children.

• Just over half (51%) of parents who exercised with their children for less than 20 minutes a day described their home life as "unhappy".

• In contrast, of the 36% of parents who spend more than an hour every day exercising with their children, more than three quarters (79%) described their home life as "happy."

•   Exercise levels have a significant bearing on parents' moods towards their children.

•   Of the least active parents, 72% confessed they get irritated by their offspring's behavior.

• In comparison, 65% of parents who spend an hour or more exercising with their children each day said they did not often find their child's behavior irritating.

  The study also revealed that modern parents admit to a number of avoidance tactics to get them out of physical activity.

• More than half (51%) confess to using the television as an "electronic babysitter" to avoid strenuous activities.
   
• 62% say that when they take their children out to play, they are more likely to choose parks with cafes or supervised soft play areas where they can rest instead of playing with their children.
  
  
• As well as being too exhausted for play, almost one in five (18%) parents said they found playing with their children boring.

So, what do you think? Is the situation the same for American parents? On what points do you identify? Disagree? Let me know!