Promoting Physical Activity in Australian Schools - Report Example

PROMOTING PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN AUSTRALIAN SCHOOLS (Name) (Institutional affiliation) (Tutor) (Date) (2324 Words) TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 1.0 INTRODUCTION 3 1.1 EPIDEMIOLOGICAL PROFILE OF PARTICIPATING IN GAMES 3 2.0 DISCUSSION 4 2.1 BACKGROUND AND CRITICAL REVIEW OF STUDY 4 2.2 INTERVENTIONS OF PROMPTING PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND PEER REVIEW 4 2.3 STUDY DESIGN 6 2.4 IMPORTANCE OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES TO CHILDREN 6 2.5 PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION 7 2.6 CORRELATION OF THE ACTIVE PLAY IN PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES 9 2.7 ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES TO PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES 9 2.8 MEASUREMENT OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY 11 3.0 CONCLUSION 12 BIBLIOGRAPHY 14 1.0 INTRODUCTION Children are always subjected to many tribulations especially when they are schooling. Studies elucidate that children suffer from obesity issues, and overweight if they are not given ample time to practice physical activities in a school locale. Poor practices of physical activities are likely to cause type two errors among the youth thereby increasing the levels of sedentary. The urge to find ways to increase children’s participation in PA will significantly reduce the time spent in sedentary. In this essay, ways of reducing time spent in sedentary, importance of this program, theories of behavior change in relation to the question shall be looked into. 1.1 EPIDEMIOLOGICAL PROFILE OF PARTICIPATING IN GAMES The epidemiological profile of my activity, which I have chosen, will entirely be based on participation of children to sundry activities of playing or involving themselves in a given task. Reducing of sedentary times in children is worthwhile since there are many things, which they help. Among the many issues they assist in include reducing of diseases such as; obesity, dysentery, diarrhea; upgrading children to develop good social virtues by ensuring they learn from each other and from teachers. Proper exercises practiced by children in school, not only makes them to keep fit, but they can also help them in various ways. For paradigm, good performers can be taken to play at international teams to represent their respective countries. In this regard, they will be given scholarships and earn a living form the same. It will not be worthwhile for children not to be given a panorama to exploit their talents well in verve. 2.0 DISCUSSION 2.1 BACKGROUND AND CRITICAL REVIEW OF STUDY There is no necessitating factor for children to relax at home, school or anywhere without getting involved in an activity. If society needs to encourage the use of physical activity, then it will be necessary if it defines all kinds of sports to children, exercises, games of any kind provided they have rules guiding them on how to play. The games to be played need to be appealing to the children so that to hearten them to continuously practice them. There are some other things, which need not be done to children such as exposing them to rainy day activities in terms of making them practice on some given games, the rainy day activities for toddlers should be encouraged since they help toddler into getting daily exercises. 2.2 INTERVENTIONS OF PROMPTING PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND PEER REVIEW There are numerous programmers’, which children should learn while in school: Learning on how to get backs enchanting walks by either strolling around blocks, or hoods to keep physical fitness they need to practice geo-caching in the outdoor ventures; getting wet when they sprinkler on horses; splash parks, playing of pools, picking up the paddles when they are going home on the bikes, rowboats, canoes or other travelling means to allow them learn how to paddle, swinging of racquet to team up games either in volleyball or smashing games, and setting and spiking of balls forward or backward especially the volleyball ones(Hockey ,1996). The four interventions which need to be painstaking include; physical activity, two concerns individual habits encompassing the sedentary behavior, self efficacy, gender, and education level just to mention a few, three is the socio-cultural issues such as the ethnicity, family support, sibling PA, cultural norms, and social norms, and the fourth is in the environmental policy which also embraces the urban planning policies, geography, organizational PA policies and access to parks or playground strategies. The four strategies much be integrated and work together to make good children at the end of the practice, otherwise they will be unsuccessful (Inns, 2007). Through the American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific approach, the physical inactivity has implications to developing coronary heart diseases and increase rate of strokes such as with cardiovascular risk, obesity and high blood pressures. Control of physical activity is very crucial in the lives of a child in that it helps in controlling weight, raising HDL on cholesterol, reducing risk of getting diabetes or cancer, improving the wellbeing of an individual and developing self-esteem, and trims down blood pressure. There are lots of ways of promoting the physical activity in children, among them are; reducing of sedentary time such as time from watching TV, playing of computer games, talking on phones. These physical activities need to be fun for children and the adolescents, and the parents should try to provide them with active lifestyles to promote opportunities for the increase use of physical activity (Neeraja, 2006). Healthier kids tend to have low blood pressures, they know heart attack symptoms, symptoms of high blood pressure, they understand what the high cholesterol levels mean to the body and that is why they continuously practice via doing exercises. 2.3 STUDY DESIGN A research of children learning in Australia was conducted and one of the primary school was chosen as the study area. An interview conceded out and data collected on how the responses were obtained and then analyzed, to help in proposal writing. This proposal will be appraised and a project developed from the proposal once the physical education program of Australian schools will accept it. 2.4 IMPORTANCE OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES TO CHILDREN Children are victims of stress in today world in particular Australia. The introduction of screen-oriented instruments has dominated the way children need to use their leisure times. The practice of physical activity will help children develop well and to take out stress especially when they reach adulthood. If this is not done early enough, then they will develop mental and physical attires to stress later on in their lives. When children engage themselves in some activity especially during their leisure time and this should be accompanied by schools giving them well balanced diet foods to reduce the likelihood of children developing health complications. The common types of activities which the Australian children need to slot in themselves in especially during the alcove periods are; allowing them have at least an hour in outdoor interaction moments, they should practice a good sedentary lifestyle to allow them establish more physical activities, and the adoption of sustained exercise practices such as cycling, walking, and swimming. The activity that the children should be practicing should be one, which helps then de-stress and at the same time assist them in having fun at play points Apart from helping children de-stress, the practice of physical activity helps children in controlling the overweight problem, reduce risks of metabolic activity syndromes and hence cancer, improving the muscle and bone strengths, and perk up on mental health and longevity of stay. Children then need to be advised not to watch too much of the television especially when they are young and if they practice some exercise they will never suffer from medical illness hence lessen the cost of medical establishment Another pro of physical activities in children include increasing self-esteem among young people, practice of sports to help introduce skills such as teamwork, leadership and self-discipline, socialization. Lack of these recreational activities in any school set up may result to young people vulnerable to drugs, gangs and becoming violent. Schools need to band more of the activities, implement walking programs, participate in sports and sensitize the children on the importance of physical activity for the benefit of their mind and bodies. The program of being active especially during leisure times need to be introduced right from the primary school to the children of Australia. This will ensure that they get fully used up with physical exercises even when they grow up and reach high school to avoid many complications at old age. 2.5 PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION The target group is the young adolescents who are in a school set up. This children need to be actively participating in physical activities to take care of their health. An active play especially when they are in the sedentary times will be the most appropriate practice from the department of Education to impose to these young children of Australia. The health problems, which will be lessened, include the overweight problem, reduce risks of metabolic activity syndromes, improving the muscle and bone strengths, and perk up on mental health and longevity of stay as discussed from the above introduction (Gotto, 1998). 2.6 CORRELATION OF THE ACTIVE PLAY IN PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES Increased use of PA in an active play setting is positively correlated with favorable adiposity measures; improved development of motor skill, better bone and skeletal health, having healthier cardio metabolic outcomes, improvement in many aspects of cognitive development and improvement in the psychosocial health at large. The social culture has great influence on the way children operate, interact and behave. They influence the behavior and hence the PA in children especially in social norms, cultural norms, ethnicity, SES and social isolation. The correlate of children’s PA in social cultural setting is defined by Van der Horst at.al (2007) in relations to family influences, and friends support. The most suitable strategies to work include education to children, implementing peer programs, campaigns and support groups being established. 2.7 ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES TO PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES Environmental issues are the most likely factors, which can influence; the type, amount of PA either in positive way or in negative ways. The physical activities such as weather, availability of playgrounds, safety, aesthetics, community design, and public transport affect the nature of PA. When the weather is friendly, then the exercises of PA will be able to be carried on compared to when the weather is unfavorable (Sallis et. al, 2000 p.45). Some of the policies, which should be implemented to support the environmental issues, are; transport policies, health policies, funding policies, and environmental policies. From the research conducted there was a positive correlation between children’s PA and the environmental factors discussed above in the sense that of accessing facilities an programs and the time spent outdoors( Sallis et.al 2000). Schools are important settings in promoting the physical activity for children. This is because most of the children attend schools regardless of their ethnic backgrounds, socio-economic factors or the sex. They splurge most of the walking hours while in school and thus promotion of physical bustle has a great potential of considerably increasing their physical activity levels. The Physical Education classes have been documented as being crucial in the promotion of physical activities since they provide opportunities for young people to develop fundamental motor skills, social skills, and long-life physical activities. The children who do not participate in the physical activities will become overweight and thus obese adolescents (Kohl & Murray, 2012 p.267). Use of PE is the budding strategy to help in meeting the physical activity guidelines through being active in classes. The interventions which need to be appraised include: addition of new school timetable to include the PE classes, adding more time to the PE classes, moderate the type of physical activities done during the PE classes and also the time taken per class to be shortened to maximum take thirty minutes(Kohl & Murray, 2012 p.123). The other physical activity programs includes the physical activity breaks, active transportation options, walking and biking, recess structures from school. These addition of the programs are showing a lot of promises to adding activity programs to the day for children and also the adolescents at large although none of these have been greatly been recommended since evidence is based on strategy(Neeraja ,2006). 2.8 MEASUREMENT OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY Physical activity can be measured in a number of ways such as use of accelerometer which is gold standard to evaluate different brands and models used for capturing special issues, use of pedometers although they are not widely used in most of the populations, direct observation can also be used for measuring the physical activity. In this case various instruments and protocols are followed before developing the parent report which defines well the survey and time diaries, specific behaviors of children, and outdoor playtimes. Future research should integrate issues such as extensive categories of development outcomes in particular to generation of new screen behaviors, they should develop instruments used to measure multiple screen uses during early years, look for determinants of behaviors over time principally in transition to schools, and lastly identify strategies to support health behaviors (Card & Benner, 2008) The evidence gathered from early years of childhood shows that are the decreased screen time can be associated with a number of factors such as the improved psychological health, strong associations that are evident in non-educational programs, better cognitive developments because of improved attention, and the dose response relationships. The efficacy of the program can be measured by the number of health issues recorded in the health centers concerning problems of health. If the rates of health issues are few, then it means that the program works better and need to be implemented. There are benefits of screen time, which are associated with fundamental movement in skills, and active gaming, the educational programs and better support programs may support the strategy. However, a number of cautions need be taken into account when dealing with screen time since, findings from a number of sources or studies vary significantly, there are limited numbers of studies especially the high quality studies, and also the meadow is emerging and the findings to date are very out from termination(Guernsey, 2007). 3.0 CONCLUSION From the above findings, the school is a benchmark in the life of many students. Adopting or implementing good strategies in training them will be very crucial since they will be able to espouse. Constant involvements with use of active participation in play; especially when children, are free will not only boost performance of kids but also will perk up their health for long-term benefits. The health issues, to be lessened, include the overweight problem, reduce risks of metabolic activity syndromes, improving the muscle and bone strengths, and perk up on mental health and longevity of stay. BIBLIOGRAPHY Hardman, Ken, & Green, Ken (2011). Contemporary Issues in Physical Education: International Perspectives. Maidenhead, berkshire, england, meyer & meyer sport (uk) ltd. Kohl, h. W., & murray, t. d. (2012).Foundations of Physical Activity and Public Health Champaign, Ill, Human Kinetics. Strauss R.S, Rodzilsky, D. Burack, G. Colin, M. (2001), Psychosocial Correlates of Physical Activity in Healthy Children. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2001; 155: 897-902. Santeford, S. (1986), Effect of Environmental Conditions on Hemolytic Production by three Strains of TSS-associated St̲a̲p̲h̲y̲l̲o̲c̲o̲c̲c̲u̲s̲ Au̲r̲e̲u̲s̲. Thesis (M.S.)-Michigan Technological University, 1986 Hockey, R. V. (1996) Physical Fitness: The Pathway to Healthful Living. ST. Louis, Mosby. Inns, T. (2007) Designing for the 21st Century; Interdisciplinary Questions and Insights Aldershot, Gower Gotto, A. m. (1998) Multiple Risk Factors in Cardiovascular Disease: Strategies of Prevention of Coronary Heart Disease, Cardiac Failure, and Stroke. Dordrecht [U.A.], Kluwer. Neeraja, K. P. (2006). Textbook of Growth and Development for Nursing Students, New Delhi, Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers, Adolescents Aaron, D. J, Storti, M.S. Robertson, R.J. Kriska, A.M. LaPorte, R.E. (2002) Longitudinal Study of the Number and Choice of Leisure Time Physical Activities from Mid to Late Adolescence. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2002; 156:1075-80. Guernsey, I. (2007). Into The Minds Of Babes: How Screen Time Affects Children From Birth To Age Five. New York, Basic Books Card, J. J. & Benner, T. (2008) Model Programs for Adolescent Sexual Health Evidence-Based HIV, STI, and Pregnancy Prevention Interventions. New York, Springer Pub. . Read More