Move, Play, Learn! Creating Active Classrooms in Early Care and Education Centers

Summary

Increasing physical activity (PA) and limiting sedentary time are important for many aspects of a young child's wellbeing. However, young children's PA is often limited, and instead preschoolers (3-5 year olds) spend a large portion of their day inactive. Given that more than 7 million U.S. children younger than 5 attend center-based child care, the early care and education (ECE) setting is an important source of PA for young children. Thus, PA promotion efforts in ECE programs are crucial to increasing the activity levels of young children, although few interventions exist and most have limited success.

Classroom teachers are important gatekeepers to physical activity in ECE classrooms, as they can determine how active children are in their care. However, teachers often hesitate to implement physical activity in their classrooms. Teachers' attitudes about PA, confidence in modifying children's PA, and their own physical abilities can influence the amount of activity they provide and how they interact with children to support PA. Few models exist to enhance teachers' skill in promoting children's activity, although such an approach could result in more sustainable outcomes. Innovative approaches to physical activity promotion are needed, which engage teachers through training, ongoing technical assistance, and easy-to-use resources.

This project aims to improve children's physical activity through the Move, Play, Learn! intervention, an intervention designed to alter the behavior of classroom teachers to increase PA in children (3-5 years old) enrolled in ECE programs through a novel, behavioral coaching approach.

To evaluate the 10-week intervention, 32 classrooms in ECE centers will be recruited and randomly assigned to the Move, Play, Learn! intervention or a waitlist control. Teachers in the intervention arm will attend training workshops to learn how children's activity can be increased using natural opportunities across the child care day and how teacher engagement with children can impact activity outcomes. Teachers will be asked to modify typical classroom activities to be more active, using strategies and resources (e.g., how-to videos, pocket activity cards) and will be asked to modify their interactions with children to support PA. Goal setting, self-monitoring, and tailored feedback will facilitate behavior change.

Conditions

• Motor Activity

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Move, Play, Learn!

Participants will attend a 4 hour workshop at the beginning of the intervention and the midpoint, covering project information, physical activity for young children, and distribution of project materials. Teachers will focus on one area of their child care day for 2 weeks each: indoor structured PA, outdoor structured PA, transitions between activities, and circle time. Participants will receive an email newsletter introducing the topic and will implement short (10 minutes) classroom activities. Teachers will also be educated about teacher PA practices, focusing on 1 behavior during each segment. Research staff will contact the teachers weekly to provide technical assistance, help teachers troubleshoot any issues that participants have with the activities, and provide encouragement.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Stephanie Mazzucca · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

3 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2016-08-31

Primary Completion

2017-05-31

Completion

2017-05-31