Tots’ Troubling TV Habits Lead To Low Levels Of Active Play
Posted April 27, 2010 10:32 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
An annual report suggests toddlers are falling victim to sedentary patterns that include too much television and not enough physical activity.
Physical activity levels for Canadian kids, including toddlers, are disturbingly low, according to Active Healthy Kids Canada, which issued its sixth annual report card Tuesday. The group gave physical activity levels in Canada an “F”, based on data that suggests only 12 per cent of children and young people are getting the recommended 90-minutes of exercise a day.
Time spent sitting in front of a computer or television screen is a big part of the problem, the report suggests. The group cites an interesting statistic: in 1971 the average age at which kids started watching TV was four. Today, it’s five months.
More than 90 per cent of youngsters start watching the tube before the age of two, despite recommendations that kids under two shouldn’t have any screen time.
“There may be an assumption that physical activity occurs naturally at a young age and doesn’t require attention or study,” the report states. “We need to know more about the relationships between physical activity and healthy early development.”
Young people are spending approximately six hours a day in front of a screen and seven hours a day on the weekends, the report states.
The report card results were based, in part, on the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. That study showed only 36 per cent of two to three-year-olds and 44 per cent of four to five-year-olds regularly enjoy unorganized physical activities.
Active Healthy Kids Canada suggests kids between the ages of one and five get at least two hours of physical activity a day. International guidelines vary slightly.
Statistics show 15.2 per cent of two-to-five-year-olds are overweight and 6.3 per cent are obese.
“This is very disturbing because it sets kids on a trajectory that the evidence shows it’s not one that we would desire,” Mark Tremblay, chief scientific officer of Active Healthy Kids Canada, said. “So young children that are overweight or obese or sedentary or inactive tend to follow those behaviour patterns later on in childhood and into adulthood, certainly much more so than kids that don’t demonstrate those behaviour patterns early on.”
The group offered suggestions on how to reverse damaging habits. It says parents should be limiting screen time, not allowing televisions in children’s bedrooms and encouraging outdoor family physical activities.
It’s also calling on the government to offer incentives to caregivers who get kids moving.
Active Healthy Kids Canada also issued grades in other areas. It issued a “D” for active transportation, claiming too few children are walking or biking to school; an “F” for screen time; a C- for physical education and a “D” for family physical activity.
