3-4 -vuotiaiden lasten fyysinen aktiivisuus päiväkodissa eri vuodenaikoina sekä varhaiskasvattajan kannustuksen yhteys lasten fyysiseen aktiivisuuteen

Authors

• Anna Jämsén University of Jyväskylä, Finland
• Jari Villberg University of Jyväskylä, Finland
• Anette Mehtälä University of Jyväskylä, Finland
• Anne Soini University of Jyväskylä, Finland
• Arja Sääkslahti University of Jyväskylä, Finland
• Marita Poskiparta University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Keywords:

physical activity, fyysinen aktiivisuus, day-care-center, päiväkoti, season, vuodenaika, prompting, kannustaminen

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine whether season has an influence on the physical activity intensity of 3-4-year-old pre-school children. A further aim was to investigate the influence of prompting from teachers on the intensity of childrens’ physical activity. Volunteer children born in 2007 comprised the research group. The research data were collected from 14 day care centers during January & February (N 94) and August & September (N 118) 2011 by using the OSRAC-P direct observational method. The level of intensity of the childrens’ physical activity was mainly sedentary (60 %). The occurrence of moderate to vigorous physical activity was 10 %. Season had a significant effect on physical activity: children were notably more active in August & September than in January & February. Teachers very rarely prompted children to increase their physical activity but when they did, the childrens’ activity level was notably higher than in situations where there was no prompting at all. In the prompting situation, physical activity was notably higher in August & September than in January & February. In the future, it would be important to consider how day-care-centers could better benefit from seasonal changes so as to encourage children to increase their physical activity through the year.