
{"id":1485,"date":"2007-12-20T07:10:21","date_gmt":"2007-12-20T15:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2007\/12\/20\/kids-more-active-when-playground-has-balls-jump-ropes\/"},"modified":"2007-12-20T07:10:21","modified_gmt":"2007-12-20T15:10:21","slug":"kids-more-active-when-playground-has-balls-jump-ropes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2007\/12\/20\/kids-more-active-when-playground-has-balls-jump-ropes\/","title":{"rendered":"Kids more active when playground has balls, jump ropes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Children play harder and longer when their child-care centers provide portable play equipment such as balls and jump ropes, more opportunities for active play and physical activity training and education for staff and students, according to researchers at the UNC School of Public Health.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Childhood obesity is an epidemic that threatens the future health of our nation,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Dianne Ward, a co-author of the study. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We know that about 57 percent of all 3-to-5-year-olds in the United States attend child-care centers, so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important to understand what factors will encourage them to be more active, and, hopefully, less likely to become obese.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Researchers assessed the physical and social environmental factors thought to influence healthy weight at 20 child-care centers across North Carolina.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->Stationary equipment such as climbing structures, swings and balance beams were associated with lower intensity physical activity, researchers said, but are beneficial to other aspects of child development such as motor and social skills.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Child-care providers can play a huge role in encouraging children to be active and developing habits and preferences that will help them control their weight throughout their lives,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Ward said.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The easiest way to increase physical activity may be as simple as providing more active play time and relatively inexpensive toys, like balls and jump ropes,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Our data don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go this far, but parents buying toys and games for children this time of year might consider stocking up on jump ropes and hoola hoops. And for their own health, they should get outside with their children and run, jump and play, too.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00e2\u20ac\u201dUNC News Services<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Children play harder and longer when their child-care centers provide portable play equipment such as balls and jump ropes, more opportunities for active play and physical activity training and education for staff and students, according to researchers at the UNC School of Public Health. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Childhood obesity is an epidemic that threatens the future health of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}