Teaching & Learning - KIDDO - Physical Literacy

Physical literacy is the skills, confidence, knowledge and motivation to be active. It is a core element to building a healthy, active society and provides children with the capacity for lifelong participation in physical activity. Unfortunately, today more than any time in recent history, we are seeing Australian children spending more time indoors and on screens, than outdoors engaging in physical activity.

Research shows that 25% of kids are overweight or obese and only 35% of children aged 5-8 years meet the physical activity recommendation of 60 minutes per day.

We know that physical activity levels are a significant determinant of children being overweight and that a major barrier to participating in physical activity is the inability to perform Fundamental Movement Skills at a level consistent with peers. In short, these children have less confidence and lack the motivation to be physically active and as a school, this is something we want to improve.

Physical activity is a key determining factor of a child’s mental and physical wellbeing. Children who are given the opportunity in early childhood education, through purposeful instruction and active play, to develop physical literacy, are more likely to participate in physical activity throughout their life. Through this participation, they will reap the many physical and mental health benefits of being physically active including; increased fitness, decreased risk of overweight and obesity, improved confidence and social skills, increased academic results and a decreased risk of anxiety and depression.

A child's core strength and the ability to cross the middle line, are essential when children carry out skills such as reading, writing and sitting and concentration. Heavy work such as pulling, pushing, crawling are also primary modulators, as modulation is the brain's regulation of sensory input. This in turn helps us to regulate our level of attention and concentration, by filtering out background distractions, focusing on important sensory information and regulating how much sensory input we are exposed to. Heavy work activities can help children with sensory processing issues feel centred. As heavy work engages a sense called proprioception, or body awareness.

We typically think of people as having five senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch. But there are two other senses that can affect motor skills. One is called the vestibular sense, and it controls balance and movement. The other is called the proprioceptive sense, and it controls body awareness.

A person’s sense of body awareness and balance comes from the way receptors in muscles and joints send messages to the brain. They tell us where our body is in space, where each body part is, and what it’s doing. It’s the way we know how much force to use to complete a task, like writing on paper or shutting a door.

This system doesn’t always work as effectively in child with sensory processing issues. Some child may write too lightly with a pencil or slam the car door really hard. They may think they’re pushing down hard enough with the pencil or that they’re using less force to shut the door than they actually are. When children struggle with things like this, heavy work helps them know where their body is and what it should be doing.

To help combat the decline in students physical literacy the experts at UWA established KIDDO, which provides physical literacy information, online training and practical resources, specifically developed for teachers, educators and coaches to improve the physical literacy of children aged 3-8. The aim is simple, if we provide teachers with the confidence, training and resources to deliver the Fundamental Movement Skills curriculum in Foundation - Year 2 and beyond, we believe we will see a dramatic improvement in the confidence and motivation of students to be physically active. A belief that so far, research has proven to be correct.