Physical activity of 3-4 years old children in kindergarten

Abstract

Three to four years old children delight in physical activity and love to run, climb, ride and swing. Onthe other hand, they quickly get tired if they do not have some rest between their burst of energetic activity. It isimportant to note that physical activity and sedentary behavior begin at a very young age and have beenshown to persist from early childhood into adulthood. The vast majority of children in developed countries noware attending some form of daycare. Having in mind that environments have a powerful influence on children’sphysical activity levels, child daycare centers provide a good opportunity to emphasize the adoption of aphysically active lifestyle by stimulating healthy behaviors and movement skills. We have successfullyassessed children (both intervention and controls) from three care centers in the city of Sofia and measuredthe volume and intensity of their physical activity during selected periods of time. The primary outcomevariables are time spent in moderate to vigorous physical activity using accelerometers and intensity ofmovements using pulse meters. Based on the results we divided the surveyed children in four groups and gavespecific recommendations to pedagogues to stimulate or alter the physical activity of 3-4 year old preschoolers.