Transcript Evridiki Zachopoulou, Alexandrio Technological Educational

Parents’ opinions about the impact of a physical
education program to their children’s healthy
behavior
Evridiki Zachopoulou, Eleni Deli, Eleni Timpa & Efthimios Trevlas
Alexandrio Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki
Dept. of Early Childhood Care & Education, Greece
EU SOCRATES Program, Comenius 2.1 Action
118192-CP-1-2004-1-GR-COMENIUS-C21
What is a healthy lifestyle?
“A healthy lifestyle is a way of living that lowers the
risk of being seriously ill or dying early…it is also
about physical, mental and social well-being.”
(WHO,1999)
Components of a healthy lifestyle
Fitness
Activity levels
Personal
safety
Smoking
Emotional
well-being
Alcohol and
drugs
Healthy
well-being
Nutrition
Worldwide health concerns- overweight
and obese
• Child obesity is described as a “pandemic of the new
millennium” (Kimm & Obarzanek, 2002)
• Globally, over 1 billion adults are overweight & 300 million
estimated to be obese
• An estimated 2 million children under 5 are thought to be
overweight
• Strong link between overweight as a child, becoming
overweight as an adult and developing Coronary Heart Disease
(CHD)
Some examples
• “Sixty percent of Italian children under the age of
18 are overweight, a figure which has doubled in 4
or 5 years. ”(Signora Moratti, Minister of Education)
• 25.3% of Greek 6-10 year olds are overweight (Krassas,
G.E et al, 2001)
• Cyprus reports overweight levels of over 20% in the
7-11 age group (IOTF, March 2005)
The UK Example
• Children’s activity levels decline with age (especially in girls)
• 1/3rd of boys and ½ of girls are inactive and lead sedentary lifestyle
• Approximately 16% of 6-15 year olds are obese
• It is estimated that inactivity in the UK costs the National Health Service
£8.2 billion per annum- with obesity costing £2.5 billion alone
• For up to 1/3rd of children, PE in school is the only activity they do
• The UK currently has the first generation of children whose life
expectancy is shorter than their parents
Source: Department of Health, 2004
EARLY
STEPS
The Early Steps Project brings out the following:
• The meaning of the physical education for preschoolers
• The movement as a way of expression, development, learning
• Through physical education  improvement of all domains of
development
• Improvement of the quality of school education
• European dimension to the field of physical education &
early childhood education
Child’s body as the primary learning center
building the foundations for future overall
development and learning
Meanings of the Movement for the young child
 movement means discovery of the environment
 movement is an important ingredient in communication
 movement means acceptance
 movement is sheer enjoyment and pleasure
 movement means freedom and safety
Main hypothesis of ‘Early Steps’ project
Could healthy issues be taught to preschoolers
through movement activities ?
Duration of ‘Early Steps’ project
10/2004 – 09/2007
1st year
1) Planning the Early Steps PE curriculum (ESPEC)
2) Training of school education staff
2nd year
1) Implementation of the Early Steps PE curriculum
2) Evaluation of program implementation
3rd year
1) Production of the final version of the Early Steps PE curriculum based on
the results of the evaluation procedure
2) Dissemination of the results of the project
Implementation of ESPEC
Writing Phase
Training Phase
Writing Phase
Preparing the educational materials:
 ESPEC – Healthy Lifestyle (24 lessons)
 ESPEC – Social Interaction (24 lessons)
Training Phase
 1st Training Seminar: Finland (04/2005)
 2nd Training Seminar: Greece (05/2005)
ESPEC – Healthy Lifestyle
Standard
Through the acquisition and the development of motor skills, preschool
children will have a desire to be involved in a healthy lifestyle
Goal 1
To be involved in a variety of physical activities
Goal 2
Recognise the changes in body functions during physical activities
Goal 3
Become aware of healthy lifestyle activities
ESPEC-Healthy Lifestyle
3 months
2 times weekly
40 – 45 min
94 children
24 Lessons
(50 boys, 44 girls)
4 – 5 years old
4 Early Educators
(Greece)
Supervision Sheet
Attendance Sheet
Assessment
procedure
 Questionnaire for program evaluation
 Questionnaire for children
 Checklist for parents
 Checklist for children
 Interviews with teachers and PARENTS
The purpose of this paper :
to present parents’ opinions about
the impact of ESPEC – Healthy Lifestyle implementation
on their children’s healthy choices
during their everyday life
After ESPEC – Healthy Lifestyle
implementation
25 semi-structured interviews were carried out
with the parents
whose children participated in ESPEC – Healthy Lifestyle
Each interview was recorded and then transcribed verbatim
Questions ??????





What are the major advantages (benefits) of ESPEC ?
What are the major disadvantages of ESPEC ?
Can you please describe to me the most positive effects of ESPEC ?
(for children, teacher, school)
Can you please describe to me the most negative effects of ESPEC
?
What is the value of such programs?
Parent’s Interviews
NUTRITION
….My child sometimes sees other children on the streets
eating chocolates and lollipops and he tells me: “Look
daddy, these children harm their health with these
things that they eat”…..
NUTRITION
…..Some days ago, my son ate, for his first time,
mandarin oranges and he thinks that he is very strong,
has taken many vitamins and is growing very fast……
In the past, he used to drink milk because he liked it, now he tells me
“milk has calcium and is good for me”… he drinks it for these
reasons too.
NUTRITION
…..My son continuously asks what the ingredients of each food are and
the way that they help. And he wants me to tell him all about fruits,
vegetables, everything…he is very interested. I see an incredible change
on my son, John. I am totally impressed with my child and I see a huge
difference…..
NUTRITION
I never followed a healthy life style. But now my son even gives
healthy food to his sister who is much younger than him…he wants
to make her eat right, and he forces us to eat right food, if he does
not always follow it, it is because he is afraid of trying new tastes.
EXERCISE
….Sometimes I see my daughter at home in the evenings, after
playing with her toys, she says: “Now I’m going to the gym
(meaning her room) in order to exercise myself” leaving her play for
a short time. She continues by saying, “I’m going inside for a while
and I will come back”….
EXERCISE
I have caught them some evenings at home sitting together while one of them
holds a paper and a pencil and pretends to be a teacher:
“Is it good when we run?”
“It’s good!” answers the other.
“Well done!”
“Is it good when we exercise and our hearts beats faster?”
“It’s good!”
“Well done!”
Many times lately they play this game…and they ask their father and I to join
in. This morning, when we were eating breakfast, suddenly they asked him:
“When you wake up does you heart beat faster?”
EXERCISE
…..He knows how to understand his breathing, and “Now,
Daddy, my heart is beating much more” he said. When he runs
and gets tired, he tries to take some position on the floor and rest
himself. This is something he never did before; he does it as a
program……
EXERCISE
He has us exercise at home and pretends that he is the teacher. He directs us as
to what we should do, and this is his favorite game. Now there are four of us in
the house and we exercise together … we listen to him because I believe that it’s
good for us. He also has his younger sister, who is very young, exercise.
Sometimes, he has us walk like giants and dwarfs. I don’t know if you do this at
the school, but he also likes to have us walk along paths between some obstacles
and to jump onto these obstacles.
GENERAL IMPRESSIONS
She always waited with excitement, “Oh! Today we didn’t go to the
gym”. I don’t know for what reason the lesson was cancelled; and
when we went to the lesson “Oh, today we did this ….and they said
that….”. At the beginning, I didn’t understand. “You do all this
things at school?”
GENERAL IMPRESSIONS
She comes home excited and tells me “we played this game….”.
She likes it so much, she sees it as a game and not as a lesson,
and she shows it at her brother. They play a game and she says:
“chocolate, don’t move”.
GENERAL IMPRESSIONS
We change our every day food choices - in order to help, we try to
update, and I don’t want the things that we say to conflict with
those of the school and to create a mess for the child.
Website:
http://earlysteps.teithe.gr/