Sports scientists study physical activity behavior in daycare centers

The Institute of Sport and Sports Science at the University of Kassel wants to investigate the extent to which additional exercise classes in daycare centers can have positive effects on children's development in the areas of motor skills and social behavior. "We assume that the children in the groups practice and develop both their movement skills and their social interaction," said the head of the institute, Prof. Dr. Volker Scheid. To this end, the Kassel project group will test and observe children from a total of twelve municipal daycare centers. In order to identify possible effects, both daycare centers with an additional exercise program and daycare centers without such an additional program will be included in the accompanying research. The participants are also interested in whether the cooperation between the daycare centers and the sports clubs can contribute to networking in their districts, said Scheid.

The city of Kassel had already launched the "Sport and nutrition in Kassel daycare centers" initiative in 2009, as part of which the planned study is also taking place. "The trial phase has been completed. Twelve daycare centers, eleven sports clubs and a total of around 300 children regularly took part in additional, playful exercise sessions in nine Kassel districts over a period of one year," said Mayor and Head of Sports Jürgen Kaiser. Building on this, scientific monitoring by the Institute for Sport and Sports Science is now planned.

As part of the "Sport in Kassel daycare centers" project ? initiated by the sports department in cooperation with the youth welfare office of the city of Kassel ? four-year-old kindergarten children have had an additional weekly exercise class since the model started in November 2009, offered by a local sports club and financially supported by many partners and sponsors. A specially developed logo "Small - but fit in Kassel" is now intended to attract even more attention to the pilot project.

Info
Prof. Dr. Volker Scheid
University of Kassel
Institute for Sport and Sports Science
Tel.: 0561/804-4801
E-Mail: scheid(at)uni-kassel.de