The Children in Action Feasibility Study

The Children in Action (CIA) program was a five month physical activity intervention. This intervention was a feasibility study with 3- to 5-year-olds enrolled in four Head Start centers. After baseline assessment, centers were matched by ethnicity and for number of participants and randomly assigned to either the intervention or the control condition. A total of 224 preschool children were randomly selected across the four centers. To evaluate the efficacy of the CIA intervention, the change in physical activity, gross motor skills and weight during the awake time and used mixed effect time-series regression models was compared. Observations did not show a statistical difference between intervention and control groups in physical activity level during the awake time, gross motor development or weight status. It was demonstrated that it is feasible to conduct the SPARK-EC curriculum among preschool children attending Head Start Centers but that an increased dose and/or longer intervention duration will be required to impact gross motor skills, weight status and physical activity levels during this critical early childhood development stage.