What is physical literacy and why does it matter? Q & A with Professor John Cairney

Kids having fun outdoors (iStock image)
08/11/2018

A single generation ago, many Canadian children had the opportunity to develop fundamental movement skills through everyday activities, such as walking to school or playing outside on weekends with friends. Today, less than 9% of school-aged children meet recommended guidelines for physical activity, says Professor John Cairney of the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education.

He recently gave a talk to KPE alumni explaining how our children came to be physically illiterate and what we can do to reverse the trend. Below we share some excerpts from his talk. Cairney’s research interests include the development and testing of physical literacy assessment tools and interventions to improve motor skills and physical literacy in early childhood and among children with chronic health conditions, such as autism and developmental coordination disorder (DCD).

What is physical literacy?

Physical literacy refers to the competence, confidence and knowledge to be physically active for life. A single generation ago, many Canadian children had the opportunity to develop fundamental movement skills such as throwing, kicking, running, hopping and jumping, simply through everyday common activities like being able to walk to school and play outside after school and on weekends with friends, without parental supervision or under the guise of organized activities. Not only did these simple opportunities help children to develop the skills and a love of physical activity, they allowed children to be physical active. 

Why are children less physically active today?

Today, less than 9% of school-aged children meet recommended guidelines for physical activity – 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous heart pumping, sweat producing activity. Concerns over safety, fear of injury and an increasingly technologically, computer-based world are some of the reasons for our chronically sedentary children.

How big of a problem is that?

Physical inactivity is a major risk factor for premature mortality, early onset of illness and a host of chronic physical and mental health conditions. Research has also shown that chronic sedentary behaviour, like watching TV or playing video games for hours at a time, is also associated with chronic health problems and premature mortality, independent of how active you are. In other words, it is not enough to be active, we must reduce the amount of sitting time every day. If these behaviours - inactivity and sedentary time - do not change, the concern is that for the first time in the last 100 years, our children may not live as a long as their parents.

So, what’s the good news?

Research has shown us that physical activity has both short- and long-term positive health benefits. Even in the area of brain health, regular participation in exercise and physical activity has been shown to improve learning and memory, as well as enhance mood, reducing feelings of depression and anxiety. The research is clear – our kids need to be more active to improve their physical health, to improve learning and mental well-being

How do we get our kids to be more active?

We need to reverse engineer our environment and our culture, creating more opportunities to be physical active. Even this however may not be enough; we need to teach our children to be active by providing them not only with the opportunities, but also the tools they need to be active. 

How do we do that?

That is where physical literacy comes in: just like learning to read, write and do math, we need to teach our children to be physically literate, so they will value being physically active, and be able to engage in a range of activities, from sport and exercise, to dance and gymnastics and martial arts. Obviously, the earlier we do this, the better. It needs to start in early childhood and carry through to adulthood.  

Physical literacy is not just about being prepared for sport. It is not just about one single activity; it is about finding what children love to do and nurturing their development to lead to a life-long pursuit of a healthy active lifestyle.