Have you noticed parks, playgrounds and neighbourhood streets are not bustling with kids playing like they used to be? Once known as a regular part of a child’s day, active play is now on the brink of becoming extinct.
Play comes in many forms, but it is generally freely chosen, spontaneous, self-directed and fun. The 2012 Active Healthy Kids Canada Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth reports that Canadian children and youth are not playing enough; assigning an “F” grade for Active Play and Leisure. Forty-six per cent of Canadian kids are getting a mere three hours or less of active play per week, including weekends. Additionally, kids spend 63 per cent of their free time after school and on weekends being sedentary. This is alarming news, as active play is a promising, accessible and cost-effective solution to help Canadian children and youth meet the Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines.
The Active Healthy Kids Canada Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth is the most comprehensive annual assessment of child and youth physical activity in Canada. Active Healthy Kids Canada works with its strategic partners to develop and disseminate the Report Card. The Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute’s Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group (CHEO-HALO), works with our Research Work Group to lead the coordination, data collection and analysis necessary to develop the Report Card, and provides access to the latest research findings. ParticipACTION provides communications management to produce and deliver the Report Card. Production of the Report Card is possible through support from The Lawson Foundation, the Interprovincial Sport and Recreation Council, the Heart and Stroke Foundation, George Weston Limited and Kellogg’s.
Full copies of the short-form and long-form Report Card, plus free presentations, articles and media materials, can be found at http://www.activehealthykids.ca.
For more information, copies of the Report Card please contact: