Physical+Development+Research

This article talks about how the state of North Carolina conducted research on the amount of physical activity their children participate in at child care centers. They took a sample of 96 Child Care centers from 33 counties across North Carolina. This study compared data on how best practice guidelines compare to current practice. They based their research on developed Best Practice guidelines. These best practice guidelines include recommendations for eight unique components of the child care environment: Active opportunities, fixed play environment, portable play environment, sedentary opportunities, staff behavior, staff training/ education, and physical activity policies. The study found out that only 13.7% of the centers met the best-practice guidelines of 120 minutes of active playtime per day. Sadly, nine centers provided only 15 minutes of activity time daily. Television viewing was observed in 89% of these centers. Nearly all the centers, 96%, had the access to play outdoors and had sandboxes, tunnels, and slides for the children, only 16% had indoor areas suitable for a variety of gross motor activities. The link to the article is:  http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/124/6/1650?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=physical&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid =1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT -- Emilee Szawiel

This article is very interesting if interested in Child Life Specialist. It deals with catasophizing thoughts of adult and how it impacts the child's overall health outcome. The study was on stomach pain increased by the adults' catsophzing thoughts towards the child's pain, which in turn increase as well as causes anxiety and depression increase. I got this information thru ISU Lib. the journal is Children's Health Care; article Catastrophizing and Parental Response to Child Symptom Complaints. Katie Dodson []


 * Association Between Peer Relationship Problems and Childhood Overweight/Obesity**

This article relates both to phsyical as well as social-emotional development of children. Peer relationships among 5-to-6-year-old Bavarian children were measured by a questionairre submitted by the childrens' parents. They could rate their child's peer relationships as 'normal', 'borderline', or 'abnormal'. BMI was measured using a weight to height ratio. The study found that overall, more girls were identified to be overweight/obese than boys. It also found that the prevalance of overweight and obesity was higher among children with 'borderline' or 'abnormal' peer relationship problems compared to 'normal' children. In the end, the relationship between overweight/obesity and peer relationship problems was found only to be significant in girls and not boys.This article was found through the ISU Library website & the article comes from the ACTA Paediatrica Journal.

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-Katie Jaehrling