Are Kids Saying Skip-IT to Exercise?

By Shannon

An interesting article appeared in the New York Times this week discussing the decline in physical activity as children get older.  First, the good news.  Research shows that the average 9-year-old is engaged in physical activity for about 3 hours a day.  Of course recess gives them a 30-minute head start on the rest of the population, but it’s good to know that our nation’s playgrounds have not become a ghost town yet.  Now, the not so good news.  Life after the age of 9 is starting to look a lot lazier for most kids.  By the age of 15, daily physical activity drops to just 49 minutes on weekdays and about a half-hour on weekends, according to research being published in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

This news is concerning for a number of reasons.  First, whatever happened to the good old fashioned tradition of playing outside with kids in the neighborhood?  I was no Venus Williams, but I was pretty talented when it came to Skip-It and my 10-speed bike logged some pretty good mileage in its day.  And what group of neighborhood boys didn’t aspire to be like the kids in The Sandlot?

On a serious note, this trend underscores larger medical issues facing kids today. Just last week, the debate over screening kids for cholesterol was widely covered by most major news outlets.  It left me wondering if Flinstones Lipitor is not too far off.  Highlighted in most of the coverage was a key recommendation for preventing cholesterol issues: increasing physical activity to at least one hour per day.

Sure the prevalence of social media and cooler technology has encouraged more kids to stay indoors (back in my day, running around the yard was more enticing than playing with my Speak and Spell).  But I firmly believe that Facebook time can co-exist in a world with playing badminton in the backyard.

With physical education becoming a thing of the past in many schools, James A. Griffin, deputy chief of the Child Development and Behavior Branch at the national institutes’ Center for Research for Mothers and Children offers some sage advice. “When you get older, kids tend to play a video game or watch television with their friends. Parents need to be aware to help them balance that out a little better.”

What are your thoughts?

Add comment July 18th, 2008