Helping young children develop skills for a healthy life
Researchers at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David have created a programme to support the development of children’s physical literacy and motor skills.
Data from Public Health Wales shows that more than one in four children aged four to five are overweight or obese, and that the number of four to five-year-olds who are obese has increased. The World Health Organisation regards obesity as one of the most serious global public health challenges.
Many children and young people in Wales do not take part in regular physical activity, often due to poor motor skills. If children’s motor skills can be improved, it will be easier for them to be physically active and maintain a healthy weight.
Children in Wales aged 3–7 are taught through the Foundation Phase. This is a play-based curriculum that does not have set subjects and that uses the outdoors as a key part of the children’s learning.
The research team at UWTSD, led by Dr Nalda Wainwright, looked at the Foundation Phase and how it contributes to the development of children’s physical literacy (i.e. the motivation, confidence, ability, understanding and knowledge to maintain physical activity at an individually appropriate level, throughout life).
They found that the outdoor and play-based curriculum does help children to become more physically active. However, they also found that more could be done to fully develop the children’s motor skills.
SKIP-Cymru
To address this, the team created SKIP-Cymru, a professional development programme to help teachers, classroom assistants, nursery nurses and parents lay the foundations for children’s physical literacy.
Based on previous research developing Successful Kinaesthetic Instruction for Pre-schoolers, SKIP-Cymru has been adapted to fit with the play-based, holistic nature of the Foundation Phase in the Welsh curriculum. It operates as a cross-sector collaboration working with regional sports development teams and leisure services to develop a whole school and community approach.
SKIP-Cymru has run in 33 schools from Wales’ most disadvantaged areas, where children are more likely to have delays in their motor development.
Parental engagement
Parental engagement is an integral part of SKIP-Cymru. Staff who attended SKIP-Cymru training set up engagement sessions where parents were invited to participate in the activities with their children and learn about the importance of movement.
Free online resources and activities have been developed for parents to access at home, and parent bags were sent home with the children to enable them to participate in the activities as a family.
Drawing on the SKIP-Cymru work with parents and pre-school settings Dr Wainwright has authored a family engagement programme for the Football Association of Wales Trust, targeted at families with young pre-school age children to support parents to play developmentally appropriate activities.
Improving children’s motor skills
SKIP-Cymru has helped parents and professionals gain the skills they need to develop children’s motor skills. Evidence showed that because of SKIP-Cymru, children made significant progress in all their motor skills and parents became more engaged in their children’s development.
Following an evaluation of SKIP-Cymru, the WG accepted that fundamental motor skills need to be taught at an early age and should be included in the new National Curriculum for Wales.
Research team
Dr Nalda Wainwright - Wales Academy for Health and Physical Literacy (WAHP), University of Wales Trinity Saint David