A better life through play
KOMPAN PLAY INSTITUTE
Play
for health
List of contents
List of contents
3
Fighting lack of exercise
Editor’s note
4 A playful childhood is a healthy childhood
6 A minimum of 90 minutes a day
8
Parks and play areas: exercise and inclusion
10 Stavanger – investing in play and health
12 Surveys in progress from the KOMPAN Play Institute
14 Promoting health
Play’s role in child health
Interview with Lars Bo Andersen and Karsten Froberg
Parks, play rights and health
A talk with Torgeir Sørensen, Stavanger
European and US surveys
References and further reading
Publisher: KOMPAN A/S 2006
Editing: Jeanette Fich Jespersen
Consultants: Lone Granzow Andersen, Helle Burlingame, Jan Ooms, Melanie Nicholas, Nadine Seyfried, Karin Müller, Karena Scowen, Lars Hauthorn Vilhelmsen
Copyright: KOMPAN A/S
This publication is produced by the KOMPAN Play Institute, an international knowledge unit for children’s play, development and learning
Fighting lack of exercise
Health challenges in childhood today
Playful solutions for health
Around the world parents, professionals and politicians are
worried about the decline in children’s health. Today, children struggling with being overweight actually outnumber
those facing famine. The sedentary lifestyles of our children
have drastic consequences – not only for their physical
health but even for their learning, social and emotional
skills.
In this publication, the KOMPAN Play Institute has put together a series of facts and suggestions for solutions using
play as a health promoter. WHO recommends a minimum
of one hour a day of moderate physical activity for children
and young people, and half an hour a day for adults. Research by Professor Lars Bo Andersen and Senior Lecturer
Karsten Froberg suggests that the correct minimum requirement should be 90 minutes a day. The Norwegian city of
Stavanger has done a remarkable job implementing play
and health in city planning, as Torgeir Sørensen, Head of
Parks and Sports department, Stavanger explains.
This publication is intended as a source of inspiration for
bringing outdoor play back into the lives of children as a
means of dealing with some of the pressing health issues,
and not solely on the physical level: by being physically
active, by playing outdoors regularly, children increase
their physical skills and also their emotional, social and
learning skills.
We hope you will enjoy this compilation of
examples that play matters!
Jeanette Fich Jespersen
Jeanette Fich Jespersen
KOMPAN Play Institute
International Manager
A playful
childhood is a healthy childhood
”If children are given a well-equipped play
area in the right location, it is hard to keep
them away.”
Playgrounds:
frameworks for health and life skills
In the quest to improve children’s health it is all too easy to
overlook the obvious: Children actually enjoy being active!
If children are given a well-equipped play area in the right
location, it is hard to keep them away. And the great side
effect of this kind of pleasure is the fact that while they play
they are burning off energy.
By increasing the areas with free access to free play activity
and non-prescriptive play, we offer our children the possibility of being physically active without having to compete
and be instructed. Furthermore we stimulate their creativity,
their social abilities and their self-esteem this way. Playgrounds are frameworks for health as well as for life skills.
Facts
• During the last 30 years European children’s physical performance in speed, endurance and strength has declined by 10-12%
• 50-75% of the 11-15yearolds are not physically active the recommended one hour a day
• 60% of adult Europeans are not moderate physically active the recommended half an hour a day
• European boys are generally more physically active than the girls
• Being overweight is defined as a BMI (Body Mass Index) of over 25
• In Europe, at least 3 million children are seriously overweight
Study on young people’s lifestyles and sedentariness and the role of sport in the con-
Promoting healthy diets and physical activity: a European dimension for the prevention
text of education and as a means of restoring the balance, Brettschneider and Naul,
of obesity, overweight and chronic diseases, Commision of the European Communi-
Paderborn and Duisburg-Essen, 2004
ties, 2005
Interview:
“I couldn’t imagine a better place for activity than the outdoors!”, Lars Bo Andersen
A minimum of 90 minutes a day
Random play an underestimated contributor to child health
What does inactivity in children mean in terms of their
present and future health, and what are the most effective
measures to combat this lack of exercise? Lars Bo Andersen
and Karsten Froberg, professors of sports medicine, are the
anchormen of some of the most accurate research on the
health of Danish children. The professors have recently suggested new recommendations for physical activity levels for
children and young people.
WHO recommends a minimum of one hour a day of moderate to vigorous physical activity for children and young
people. You suggest that this is insufficient, Mr. Froberg?
“Our most recent research shows a close connection between the clustering of risk factors and physical activity.
The risks are three times higher in inactive children. We can
conclude that all but the most active 40% have a risk of cardiovascular conditions. Based on measurements in Estonia,
Portugal and Denmark, we see that the most active 40% of
the 9 and 15-year-olds are less prone to have a clustering of
risk factors. These 9-year-olds spend an average of 116 minutes a day, and the 15-year-olds 88 minutes a day, on moderate to vigorous physical activity. Thus, we recommend 90
minutes a day as a minimum – if we want to ensure a health
effect and reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases.”
From a free play and playground perspective, your observation in the Lancet article that random play should not be
underestimated as a contribution to child health is most
interesting. Could you elaborate on that, Mr. Andersen?
“Well, I couldn’t imagine a better activity than being outdoors
where play opportunities and playgrounds are to be found.
New studies by Ashley Cooper of Bristol University have used
GPS (Global Positioning System) and accelerometers to identify when and where physical activity takes place outside of
school. The survey shows accurately that the physical activity
is noticeably higher in play areas and parks.”
Recent research on children’s activity levels generally
seems to recommend that more action should be taken to
encourage children to be active instead of simply increasing PE lessons at school?
“From the Danish Ballerup survey we hear that updating of
outdoor play areas is important for activity. The final report
will conclude that increasing PE from 2 to 4 lessons a week
will not sufficiently change risk factors. We see a general
decline in motor skills and fitness from the 70s to today. And
this decline is followed by an increase in overweight and
obese children.”
If increasing PE is not enough, what do you recommend?
“Cycling or walking to school seems to have a strong effect on
physical activity and health. Not least because of the scope
for exploration on the way to and from school. Furthermore,
participation in sports outside of school is effective.”
So, more sport and more play is the answer?
“These are two of the important steps towards healthier
children. Education and child-friendly environmental planning are other crucial steps towards more mobility in children. Unfortunately we see that the metabolic syndrome
and other risk factors of cardiovascular diseases are noticeably more prevalent in children from families with weaker
socio-economic and/or educational backgrounds. These
are the children who typically do not participate as much in
organised sports.”
What are your future plans for research into childhood
and physical activity?
“It is of great importance that we make more longitudinal
studies of the effect of a physically active childhood and how
this influences language development and self confidence,
for instance. We would like to undertake a study of kindergarten children and physical activity to see if a positive approach towards activity in early childhood has a bearing on
later activity levels.”
Mr. Froberg and Mr. Andersen recently published their research in The Lancet, 2006; 368:299-304.
Lars Bo Andersen
Professor, Department of Sports Medicine,
Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Ullavaal Stadion, Norway
Sources
Karsten Froberg
Senior Lecturer, Institute of Sport Sciences
and Clinical Biomechanics, University of
Southern Denmark
Parks
and play areas: exercise and inclusion
”The closer people live to a park or green
area, the more exercise they do.”
Parks increase exercise
The right to play – including children
The green areas and parks around us are a paradise for
children’s activities. All that is required is that these areas
are planned with children in mind. As a rule, a location close
to the home is a prerequisite for children being allowed to
use the outdoor area. The closer people live to a park or
green area, the more exercise they do. What’s more, parks
and green areas reduce stress, prevent illness and improve
health following an illness. This all goes to show that green
oases are vital for exercise and well-being.
The joy of free play is fundamental for children. The UN’s
Convention on the Rights of the Child states that children
have the right to play. As adults we have a duty to respect
this right and create the space and opportunities required
for children to play. By creating areas that meet the needs
of different age groups and which provide a varied range
of activities such as rotating, swinging, climbing, tilting and
playing ball, we have already come a long way. Children
have a place in which they can be active. And parents have
a place where they can safely let their children play – and
maybe even a place for them to meet too. In local areas, involving children and other residents in the planning of these
play areas means that they take ownership of the play area,
promoting good citizenship in the local community.
An Australian study shows that 8-12 year olds exercise
considerably more when a basketball net is set up in their
neighborhood. This straightforward piece of equipment encourages and improves their activity. For younger children,
or children who are less interested in sport, equipment or
playgrounds encourage play and physical activity in the
same way. In fact, activities such as climbing, swinging,
balancing and jumping make a significant contribution to
the daily physical activity that children need to stay healthy.
Sources
Childrens Storytelling Competition Analysis,
prof. Chris Cunningham, Blue Mountains City Strategy, 2002
The UN convention on the Rights of the Child
Stavanger
10
Kvalaberg has one of the many facilities for informal sports and play activities of Stavanger
investing in play and health
Awards for urban environment
Originally founded in 1125, Stavanger has grown to the
point that, today, it is Norway’s fourth largest city with
116.000 inhabitants. The city has always had strong international connections. In recent years, Stavanger has
received several awards for the quality of its urban environment. In 2008 Stavanger will be the European capital
of culture.
Stavanger has a strong focus on encouraging its citizens to
make use of the outdoor environment for physical activity.
Over the last 10 years there has been an emphasis on children’s and young people’s health in particular. Including
children and youth in city planning is also an area where
efforts have been directed.
Stavanger offers spectacularly beautiful fjord, mountain
and forest areas. So the landscape is an attraction in itself. Nevertheless, the municipality has chosen to focus on
children’s needs and health by adding play and sporting
activities to the outdoor scene, adding attraction and thus
physically creating an environment to promote the health
and level of activity of its citizens.
Conference encouraged activity
In 2003 Stavanger hosted the International Federation of Parks
and Recreation Administration (IFPRA) conference. The theme
was health and the outdoors. Torgeir Sørensen, head of the
Parks and Sports Department, managed the conference: “The
speakers documented how mobility, outdoor life and health
are closely interconnected. This furthered the ongoing work
of making a community that encourages all citizens, children
and youth in particular, to lead active outdoor lives,” he tells.
Succesful initiatives
“In spite of Stavangers perfect surroundings it takes some
incentives to make people use these outdoor areas and
see them as their own,” Sørensen says. “This is why play
areas in places that already have an attraction to offer have
Vaulen, Stavangers popular seaside park, has several play facitilites
proved useful – for instance at Vaulen, Stavanger’s popular
water playground. Play areas and equipment have been
added to Vaulen and the surrounding park. This has succeeded in increasing the level of activity undertaken.”
“In the city, the Music Hall Park playground is a historic centre
of play activity. Following the renovation of the old play area
in 2002, we now have coach parties visiting from schools in
the neighboring regions. Giving people incentive to be more
active in a playful way is one of the main reasons for the
existence of leisure departments,” Sørensen emphasizes.
In the future, Stavanger will focus more on the older user
groups. Informal sports and play areas are crucial in encouraging them to be active. Many of the city’s activities
focus on instilling the habit of being active in children and
young people and thus investing in the future health of the
citizens of Stavanger. – And they are bound to succeed.
Torgeir Sørensen is head of the Parks and Sports Department of the Municipality of Stavanger and a member
of the Executive Committee and past chair of IFPRA, International Federation of Parks and Recreation Administration, Europe. He has a history of being a keen advocate and initiator of high standard sports parks and play
facilities for children of all ages.
11
Surveys
12
in progress
from the KOMPAN Play Institute
”(…) increasing PE at school is not sufficient.
Children need daily activity as found,
for instance, in free outdoor play.”
USA – survey on calorie burn in play
Denmark – survey on pre-school play
and health
In the US, the overweight and obesity epidemic exceeds what
has happened in Europe so far. Nevertheless, the situation
in the United States is worth watching closely as the global
trend moves towards an increase in the number of children
and youth being affected by overweight and obesity.
In December 2006 the Institute of Sports Science an Clinical
Biomechanics at the University of Southern Denmark embarked on a study of kindergarten children, coordinated by
Karsten Froberg, senior lecturer and international research
coordinator. The scope of the research is to study, based
on WHO’s broadened health interpretation, the importance
of frequent, daily participation in physical activity and its effects on the physical, emotional, social and cognitive development or kindergarten children. KOMPAN’s kindergarten,
The Four Seasons, is part of the pilot study.
There are multiple causes contributing to this situation. But
the biggest change in the American childhood is the lack
of opportunities to play. As an example of this, many US
schools have cut down or completely eliminated recess.
Attractive playgrounds and play equipment make a difference when it comes to fighting overweight and obesity in
children. To document this, the KOMPAN Play Institute has
initiated a research project to compare primary school children’s free play and play in well-equipped playgrounds.
The research project is being carried out by independent
researchers and we are cooperating with two school test
beds. The aim is to gain empirical knowledge of the physical as well as social benefits that children derive from play,
including with respect to gender differences.
Karsten Froberg states “With recent European research
across Europe stating that children and young people need
at least 90 minutes of physical activity per day to stay physically fit and avoid affluent diseases such as overweight,
Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, it is clear that
increasing PE at school is not sufficient. Children need daily
activity as found, for instance, in free outdoor play.”
Throughout the years the KOMPAN Play Institute has initiated and participated in play studies in cooperation with reseachers worldwide.
13
Science museum with outdoor play and exercise
Normally museums and their parks mean the opposite of
children’s physical activity and play.
Magna Science Centre is an example of a museum park
which sustains and respects children’s inert need for exercise and free play.
The playground at the Magna Science Centre in Rotherham,
UK,was planned to make the outdoors mirror the interactive exhibitions indoors.
14
The centre covers all England as an experiment based way
of explaining the four elements to children. The play area
is built after those same elements but adding the non-prescriptive element of playground play to the understanding
of these. Calories are burnt, sweat is built up and learningby-doing gets to include agility and physical activity.
The playground is accessible also to children with disabilities.
Promoting health
KOMPAN helps promote health
KOMPAN’s values and engagements
The joy of physical play is a basic constituent of life quality for
children. As responsible members of society, we need to acknowledge that in respecting children’s play by offering them
outdoor play facilities, we are in fact respecting important
health requirements. By giving our children room, opportunities and rights to play, we ensure happy children today – and
healthy adults tomorrow.
As well as designing high-quality equipment that encourages play for today’s children, KOMPAN supports initiatives
that promote play rights.
KOMPAN is a partner of the International Play Association
– promoting the child’s right to play. IPA is a non-governmental organization which advocates and preserves the rights of
children to play globally, among others having an advisory
role to UNICEF. Read more on www.ipaworld.org.
Making age-appropriate, stimulating play equipment in
keeping with the times for children is KOMPAN’s core competency. By having varied, well planned and child-friendly
playgrounds as a part of each and every environment for
children, the encouragement to be physically, socially, emotionally, cognitively and creatively active in a joyful way is
as strong as it gets. By incorporating non-prescriptive play
activities in addition to well-known classics, the playground
will become a health-promoting part of the local community – sustaining children’s and their families’ physical and
social well-being.
“Go Play”, in Landscape Today, 2/2005-6, Jeanette Fich Jespersen
“Growing world”, Jeanette Fich Jespersen, KOMPAN Play Institute, http:/www.kompan.com/
sw28321.asp
“KOMPAN Play Institute statement on overweight and obesity”, 2005, http:www.kompan.
com/sw28321.asp
“Making American Playgrounds Relevant”, in Recreation Management, Helle Burlingame, http://
www.recmanagement.com/columns.php?fid=200610GC03
”Physical activity and clustered cardiovascular risk in children: a cross-sectional study”, The
Lancet, 2006, 368:299-304, Lars Bo Andersen, Karten Froberg et alt. (the European Youth Heart
Study)
Playpoint – Studies on the play value of a playground equipment series, Hamburger Forum and
Universität Hamburg, Fachbereich Sportwissenschaft, Regina Hass and Knut Dietrich
Promoting healthy diets and physical activity: a European dimension for the prevention of obesity, overweight and chronic diseases, EU green paper, Commision of the European Communities,
2005
Study on young people’s lifestyles and sedentariness and the role of sport in the context of
education and as a means of restoring the balance, Brettschneider and Naul, Paderborn and
Duisburg-Essen, 2004
“The school playground as a health promoting measure”, in Leisure and Play, 2/2005, Jeanette
Fich Jespersen
“Today’s schoolyards – play to learn”, in Leisure and Play 6/2003, Jeanette Fich Jespersen
Physical activity and health in Europe – Evidence for action, ed. Nick Cavill, Sonja Kahlmeier and
Francesca Racioppi, WHO Europe, 2006
15
Further reading
Blue Mountains – Our Future, report, Chris Cunningham, Blue Mountains City Strategy, 2002
KOMPAN PLAY INSTITUTE
- a knowledge network on play
The KOMPAN Play Institute is a knowledge unit for children’s play, development and learning. We network with play professionals worldwide.
The KOMPAN Play Institute watches and investigates research of children’s conditions and play opportunities, and the
institute is an important factor in KOMPAN’s product development and staff education. We hold seminars, lectures and
produce articles on play, closely monitoring child research to add innovation to KOMPAN’s knowledge of play, children and
the benefits of playgrounds.
The KOMPAN Play Institute currently focuses on health and play, teenagers and play, girls’ and boys’ play and inclusion.
Read more about KOMPAN Play Institute at www.kompan.com
International
Jeanette Fich Jespersen,
M.A,
KOMPAN Play Institute,
International Manager,
KOMPAN A/S
Korsvangen 6, DK-5750 Ringe
Tel.: +45 6362 1250
[email protected]
UK
Melanie Nicholas,
playground design specialist,
independent consultant,
KOMPAN Ltd.
20 Denbigh Hall,
Bletchley, Milton Keynes MK3 7QT,
Tel.:01908-642466
[email protected]
The Netherlands
Jan Ooms,
architect,
KOMPAN Play Institute,
Benelux manager,
KOMPAN BV
Schimminck 13
5301 KR Zaltbommel
Tel.:0418-681468
[email protected]
France
Nadine Seyfried,
Motor skills expert,
Independent consultant,
KOMPAN SA
363, rue Marc-Seguin
77198 Dammarie-les-Lys Cedex
Tel. :01 64 37 73 33
[email protected]
USA
Helle Burlingame,
psychologist,
KOMPAN Play Institute,
US director
KOMPAN, Inc
930 Broadway, Tacoma, WA 98402
Tel. 253-579-1001
[email protected]
www.kompan.com
KOMPAN A/S
Korsvangen
5750 Ringe
Tel.: +45 63 62 12 50
Fax: +45 63 62 10 00
E-mail: [email protected]