Topic 4: What is Going on?

When most people think about physical activity they think about exercise, like a visit to the gym or a run in the park. When adults think of children in physical activity, there is a tendency to think PE at school. Either way, it is hard to talk about physical activity without talking about health. We all know physical activity is a tool to maintaining optimal health. But do we, as a culture, use it to achieve that goal? And if we aren’t using it to maintain health, then what is the current situation for adults? What about children? We all know children are more sedentary than they have ever been and we know it is impacting their health too. But what does that really look like?

• Shockingly, before the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine, studies found that 8-12 year old children spent an average of 5 hours a day in front of a screen while teens were spending up to 7.5 hours a day in front of a screen, stats that don’t include school screen time like using smart boards or school computers.  
• And prior to quarantine, studies found preschoolers, children aged 2-5, watched 32 hours of TV per  week, which is 4.5 hours of TV each day!
• In conjunction with all of this, studies have found children are sedentary for 6 hours a day with only 15 minutes a day in moderate to vigorous activity.
• Which means that we are completely ignoring the fact that the CDC recommends children get a minimum of 60 min per day of physical activity, 
• And that is the bare minimum.  
• One study even found a significant number of American children only get 4-7 min per day of outside, unstructured play 
• This is a far cry from what most of us, and most of their parents, experienced as children.