According to the World Health Organisation, children under 5 need to be active for 180 minutes every day.
To help early childhood teachers give pre-schoolers the physical activity they need to succeed, health science researcher Wendy Pirie has developed a programme called MAPP – Movement Active Physical Play.
"Being active in early childhood generally sets kids up for well-being across the lifespan," she tells Susie Ferguson.
Photo: Jan Kopriva / Unsplash
Health science researcher Wendy Pirie Photo: Free Spirit Publishing
Sit Less, Move More and Sleep Well are the three cornerstones of the Ministry of Health's Active Play Guidelines, developed in response to WHO guidelines.
Pirie recommends this "wonderful resource" for parents seeking fun ways to add more physical activity into their home life, such as 'wheelbarrow-walking' to the bathroom or having a family disco.
"Parents know their children best and they are the best role models."
In formal learning environments, many children struggle to sit still because they have an underdeveloped balance system due to a lack of physical activity in the early years, Pirie says.
"The way we grow our balance system is the way kids generally play, which is things like rolling, spinning, being upside down - essentially things where your head is out of an upright position."
This process of developing begins in utero when foetuses are typically upside down, Pirie says.
"Within your inner ear, you have little hairs called scilla that run across and tell our body where we are in space. When we're in utero as a developing baby those little hairs are all standing upright and preparing us for what our body feels like once we hit gravity.
"As we get older and become upright, we're spending less and less time rolling, spinning and hanging upside down."
In New Zealand, 87 percent of children under five attend early childhood centres which have physical activity embedded in the curriculum.
To further help teachers in these centres address children's physical development needs, Pirie has designed the MAPP programme around fun 15-minute activity sessions.
It is currently being trialled with a group of 60 children in the Hawke's Bay who are wearing smart watches to track their activity levels.
The Ministry of Health's Active Play Guidelines for children under five Photo: Ministry of Health NZ
