Move, Play, Learn! Creating Active Classrooms in Early Care and Education Centers

Increasing physical activity (PA) and limiting sedentary time are important for many aspects of a young child's wellbeing. However, young children's PA is often limited, and instead preschoolers (3-5 year olds) spend a large portion of their day inactive. Given that more than 7 million U.S. children younger than 5 attend center-based child care, the early care and education (ECE) setting is an important source of PA for young children. Thus, PA promotion efforts in ECE programs are crucial to increasing the activity levels of young children, although few interventions exist and most have limited success.

Classroom teachers are important gatekeepers to physical activity in ECE classrooms, as they can determine how active children are in their care. However, teachers often hesitate to implement physical activity in their classrooms. Teachers' attitudes about PA, confidence in modifying children's PA, and their own physical abilities can influence the amount of activity they provide and how they interact with children to support PA. Few models exist to enhance teachers' skill in promoting children's activity, although such an approach could result in more sustainable outcomes. Innovative approaches to physical activity promotion are needed, which engage teachers through training, ongoing technical assistance, and easy-to-use resources.

This project aims to improve children's physical activity through the Move, Play, Learn! intervention, an intervention designed to alter the behavior of classroom teachers to increase PA in children (3-5 years old) enrolled in ECE programs through a novel, behavioral coaching approach.

To evaluate the 10-week intervention, 32 classrooms in ECE centers will be recruited and randomly assigned to the Move, Play, Learn! intervention or a waitlist control. Teachers in the intervention arm will attend training workshops to learn how children's activity can be increased using natural opportunities across the child care day and how teacher engagement with children can impact activity outcomes. Teachers will be asked to modify typical classroom activities to be more active, using strategies and resources (e.g., how-to videos, pocket activity cards) and will be asked to modify their interactions with children to support PA. Goal setting, self-monitoring, and tailored feedback will facilitate behavior change.