By: Professor Daniel Gawrisch

“What is your favorite part of the school day?” Ask most children this question and the inevitable response will be “Recess!” Although you may have been looking for an academic subject as a response, think twice before you correct the child. Recess is a highly valuable part of the daily school schedule that accomplishes educational objectives and battles childhood obesity. Opportunities at recess promote growth in the psychomotor, cognitive, and affective learning domains and provide students with spiritual growth applications.

This topic will be covered in 2 separate blog posts.  The first blog post will focus on the psychomotor learning domain and value of physical activity.

Battling Childhood Obesity and Promoting Growth in the Psychomotor Domain

People are more aware today than they were five years ago that America is facing an uphill battle in the fight against overweight and obesity. However, it is important that educators realize just how steep that hill has become.

•  Since 1980, obesity prevalence among children and adolescents has almost    tripled (Ogden & Carroll, 2010).
• One in three children today is overweight or obese, and one in three children born during or after the year 2000 will develop diabetes at some point in their life. These statistics are even worse for children that are of a minority decent (National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2014).
• Nine out of ten obese adolescents will remain obese as adults (Gordon-Larsen, Adair, Nelson, & Popkin, 2004).
• 58% of U.S. children aged 6-11 and 92% of adolescents aged 12-19 do not meet the physical activity guidelines (Toriano et al., 2008).
• Studies have shown that physical activity habits start at childhood and track into adult life (Twisk, 2000).

Knowing these statistics, schools have a responsibility to provide students with opportunities to be physically active while in a safe, supportive environment. Physical activity in children has a “snow-ball” effect of either a positive spiral of engagement or a negative spiral of disengagement (Gallahue, Ozmun, & Goodway, 2012, p.188). Therefore, the physical activity patterns they establish now will follow them into their adult years. When schools encourage physical activity through daily physical education class and opportunities at recess, they are promoting healthy physical activity habits that are more likely to be maintained in adult years (Hallal, Victora, Azevedo, & Wells, 2006). In the same sense, it could be said that schools that do not provide regular opportunities to be active throughout the school day are training children for inactive, sedentary lifestyles.

Gone are the days of children coming home from school and playing outside until it gets dark. With the increase in average screen time (computers, cell phones, TV, video games, etc.) reaching 7.5 hours a day (National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2014), children are struggling to reach the recommended amount of 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2004 brought with it a heavy emphasis on standardized test scores, resulting in extended time spent in math, reading, and science and forcing schools to cut back on recess time.

While schools are only one piece of the puzzle, reducing physical activity opportunities throughout the school day will not help the uphill climb against the overweight and obesity epidemic in America. Therefore, while recent trends are to allow for more academic learning time by reducing recess time, it is imperative that recess time is not taken away from students’ everyday schedule.

The staggering overweight and obesity statistics have forced the federal government to take action. Improving child nutrition is the focal point of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, setting healthy eating standards for school lunch programs. This is not the total solution, however, as dietary habits will help with only one (body composition) of the five health-related components of physical fitness. The other four components (cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, and flexibility) can only be improved through physical activity. Currently, only three states (Delaware, Virginia, and Nebraska) have 20 minutes of mandatory elementary-school recess a day (Slater, Nicholson, Chriqui, Turner, & Chaloupka, 2012).

While students should learn to move and develop psychomotor skills in physical education class, it is also important to distinguish recess from physical education class. Physical education class is instructional time, with planned movement opportunities occurring in a highly structured environment working towards goals that are aligned with developmentally appropriate objectives. This is very different from the free play that occurs during recess. The unstructured nature of free play during recess establishes a pressure-free environment for children to creatively combine and refine the manipulative, stability, and locomotor skills they enjoy while getting their heart rates up. School officials need to realize that while rules and guidelines should be followed during recess time, structured and planned activities should be avoided. When activities are structured and planned, it is not a true “break in the day,” which is what children need (Council on School Health, 2013). Additionally, children can sharpen old movement skills and practice new ones in a free-play environment that they otherwise wouldn’t attempt (Brown, 2009, p.31).

Furthermore, free play provides children with the chance to self-select into movement opportunities, establishing the previously referenced “snow-ball” effect of self-selecting into physical activity that will continue throughout life. Through free play, the children reveal the activities they enjoy and inform teachers of “at-risk” students who struggle to find participation opportunities and may establish a habit of self-selecting out of physical activity opportunities.

Therefore, when considering physical activity opportunities, the battle against childhood obesity, and growth in the psychomotor domain, teachers may conclude that recess is a necessary part of the school day. In a future blog post, we will look at the cognitive and affective domains and the potential for spiritual application opportunities at recess.

Professor Daniel Gawrisch serves at Martin Luther College in New Ulm, MN, where he teaches a variety of undergraduate courses in Physical Education. He also serves as the assistant women’s basketball coach.

References

Brown, S. & Vaughan, C. (2009). Play: How it shapes the brain, opens the imagination, and invigorates the soul. New York, NY: Penguin Group.

Council on School Health. (2013). The crucial role of recess in school. Pediatrics, 131, 183–188.

Gallahue, D., Ozmun, J., & Goodway, J. (2012). Understanding motor development: Infants,children, adolescents, adults. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Gordon-Larsen, P., Adair, L.S., Nelson, M.C., Popkin, B.M. (2004). Five-year obesity incidence in the transition period between adolescence and adulthood: the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 80(3), 569-575.

Hallal, P.C., Victora, C.G., Azevedo, M.R., & Wells, J.C. (2006).  Adolescent physical activity and health: a systematic review. Sports Medicine, 36(12), 1019-1030.

National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (2014). Overweight and obesity. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/index.html

Ogden, C., & Carroll, M. (2010). Prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents: United States, trends 1963-1965 through 2007-2008.  Division of Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys of the CDC.

Slater, S.J., Nicholson, L., Chriqui, J., Turner, L., & Chaloupka, F. (2012). The impact of state laws and district policies on physical education and recess practices in a nationally representative sample of US public elementary schools. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine,166(4), 311-316.

Toriano, R., Berrigan, D., Dodd, K., Masse, L., Tilert, T. et al. (2008). Physical activity in the United States measured by accelerometer. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise,40(1), 181-188.

Twisk, J., Kemper, H., & Van Mechelen, W. (2000).  Tracking of activity and fitness and there relationship with cardiovascular disease risk factors.  Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 32, 1455.