Making getting healthy fun

All over the world, kids have found fun ways to be physically active. Centuries ago in China, children skipped over a rope swung by their friends and called it jump rope. It’s now a standard playground game and even a form of intense workout for adults! Hopscotch, from Indonesia, is as simple as jumping across blocks drawn on the ground. In Germany, a running game that includes one child being ‘it’ until they catch another child produced many variations of the classic game of tag.

According to Vicky Lambert, coordinator of the Healthy Active Kids South Africa (HAKSA) report produced by Discovery Vitality, these mostly physical games played outside may be disappearing. “We need to reclaim our neighbourhoods,” she says. “It seems the days of cricket in the street and riding bikes are gone; we need to bring those activities back.”

Although it may seem as though encouraging children to play is trivial, studies show that much of the physical activity children enjoy is not from structured activities like school sports, but rather from active play. According to researchers, this kind of play may be as important for children’s development as structured sport.

The HAKSA report notes that children should be getting about an hour of physical activity a day, but most children get less than 20 minutes. One factor to account for this is the increasing popularity of screen-based activities like watching television and playing computer games. According to HAKSA, children spend more than three hours a day learning, almost two hours a day socialising and over an hour listening to the radio. Children between 10 and 17 watch an average of three hours of television a day and this amount increases over the weekend.

Despite this, schools are making good strides in improving the physical activity of children. Organised sports participation in South Africa shows some reach, but the opportunities for children to take part in organised sports at school are unequal, with well-resourced schools having better participation levels and boys being more likely to participate than girls by an astounding 39%.

Physical education is widely considered to be one of the best investments for physical activity, as schools are ideal environments to teach children about healthy living. Schools should accommodate for physical education classes, play areas, resources for play time, and active transportation opportunities. However, less than two-thirds of children participate in weekly physical education classes. This is another area in which inequality plays a role, as higher-income schools show markedly more participation.

It is well known that behaviour and obesity coexist and both are associated with cardiovascular disease. If your children’s school doesn’t offer them adequate opportunity for active play, give them that opportunity at home by playing with them. Backyard games like soccer, cricket, rugby, or just running around gives them the opportunity to learn to enjoy the advantages of a healthier life in the long term.

Find out more about Discovery.