Start Early
Active & Healthy Kids For Life
About the Initiative
Start Early: Active & Healthy kids For Life is a multi-faceted educational intervention that targets children (3-5Y), their parents and early years educators aiming to promote the importance of healthy lifestyle habits in early childhood.
The START Early Initiative is designed to help young children enjoy inclusive, developmentally appropriate physical activities that can benefit their movement skill development, physical fitness, and health. The initiative is also designed to promote health and learning through optimal nutrition which includes consumption of a variety of nutritious foods and beverages at meals and snacks, as well as focusing on recognizing hunger and fullness in children to ensure adequate intake.
The initiative provides professional development for practicing early childhood educators & promotes awareness of the benefits of active and healthy living for parents.
Project Theme: START Early
Early childhood is a period of rapid physical and cognitive development and a time during which a child’s habits are formed and family lifestyle habits are open to changes and adaptations” (WHO Executive Summary, 2019).
Objectives:
Physical activity for children ages three to five years old takes place through active play during their readiness period for learning fundamental movement skills. Practicing these skills is important. Generally, the more skillful children become developing fundamental movements at this age, the more likely they will continually engage in healthful physical activity throughout their lifetimes.
Early childhood educators can learn to lead children in these physical activities in classrooms and on playgrounds. Parents and children can enjoy playing these activities together in living rooms and gardens.
Adequate nutrition for children ages three to five years old is crucial to support appropriate growth and development. During this life stage, children can exert independence around food and develop some picky eating habits. Providing children with a variety of nutritious foods in a supportive environment is crucial to the early development of healthy eating habits.
Early childhood educators can learn to utilize a supportive eating environment and encourage foods that will promote health.
These adult-led physical activities:
- Are designed to give children practice developing their fundamental movement skills, listening to instructions, cooperating, and sharing equipment and space with other children.
- Involve open-ended, minimally competitive, and non-elimination games that enable each child to enjoy the activities.
- Include young children of varying ages and abilities playing together at levels that match the children’s abilities.
- Are easy to lead, require only readily available, inexpensive equipment, and many can be played in small classrooms and living rooms.
- Are designed to give children opportunities to try a variety of foods in a supportive environment.
- Allow children to experiment with foods in a playful environment.
Anticipated outcomes:
Anticipated Outcomes for Children:
- Children will have increased opportunities to practice their fundamental movement skills through engaging in Active Play! physical activities.
- Through these practice opportunities, children will develop more mature fundamental movement skills and increase their physical fitness.
- Children will enjoy participating in the Active Play! physical activities.
- To influence a change in children’s knowledge, attitudes and behavior regarding food
- Children will have increased exposure to a variety of nutrition and colorful foods.
- Children will develop an increased willingness to try new foods.
- Children will enjoy participating in the nutrition activities.
- Children will have an improvement in the quality of food and nutrient intake
Anticipated Outcomes for Early Childhood Educators:
- Increase their awareness of the importance of ample opportunities for children to engage in Active Play & develop the motivation and skills to lead young children in developmentally appropriate physical activities.
- Develop strategies to overcome common barriers to children’s physical activity including the barriers of limited space and equipment, meeting the needs of children with varying abilities, and lack of knowledge and experience leading physical activities.
- Increase their awareness of the importance of including a variety of nutritious and colorful foods in the diets of young children.
- Increase their skills in supporting children to include a variety of nutritious and colorful foods in the diet of young children.
- Develop strategies to overcome barriers to children consuming a variety of nutritious and colorful foods.
Anticipated Outcomes for Parents:
- Engage parents as active partners
- Increase their awareness of the importance of ample opportunities for their young children to engage in physical activities throughout each day.
- Appreciate the role of physical activity in helping children improve their movement skills as well as enhance their health, social/emotional and cognitive development.
- Increase their awareness of the importance of regularly including a variety of nutritious and colorful foods in the diets of young children.
- Increase their skills in supporting children to include a variety of nutritious and colorful foods in the diet of young children.
- Develop strategies to overcome barriers to children consuming a variety of nutritious and colorful foods.
- Identify a child’s hunger and fullness cues and adapt food offerings accordingly.