Meeting a Physical Activity Guideline in Preschool and School Readiness: A Program Evaluation.

This study evaluates if the Kiddie Children and Teachers on the Move physical activity (PA) program improves the proportion of days meeting the Institute of Medicine (IOM) PA guideline, and whether meeting the guideline is correlated with improvement in school readiness. Thirteen Head Start-affiliated pre-kindergarten classrooms participated in this study. Minutes per hour of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and proportion of days meeting the IOM PA guideline were examined across three types of intervention days: days during a non-intervention period, non-program days during the intervention period, and program days during the intervention period.

Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and processing speed: predicting adaptive change in ADHD levels and related impairments in preschoolers.

Background: Preschool ADHD symptoms have predictive utility for later presence of ADHD diagnoses (Harvey, Youngwirth, Thakar, & Errazuriz, 2009, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 77, 349; Lahey et al., 2004, American Journal of Psychiatry, 161(11), 2014), yet some level of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity are present even in typically developing preschoolers. Physical activity (PA) is known to have a broad spectrum of positive effects on the brain in school-age typically developing children (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010, The association between school based physical activity, including physical education, and academic performance.

Distinct Methods for Assessing Compliance With a Physical Activity Guideline for Children in Preschools.

Background: According to the US Institute of Medicine guideline, preschool-aged children should participate in ≥15 minutes of physical activity (PA) per hour or 3 hours per day over 12 hours. Examinations of PA guideline compliance to date averaged time spent in PA over several days; however, children could exceed the guideline on some days and not on others. Therefore, this cross-sectional study examined PA guideline compliance in preschool children based on number of minutes per hour (average method) and percentage of days the guideline was met (everyday method).