The chances for children in Germany to grow up healthy are unequally distributed and strongly depend on their social situation. Kitas, as the first stage of the education system, are an ideal place for age-appropriate health promotion. The PAKTan project of the Associate Professorship of Didactics in Sport and Health, which was initiated in cooperation with the Workers' Welfare Association of Upper Bavaria, addresses this issue and focuses on promoting the development and improving the physical activity of children. The project was funded with a sum of around 200,000 Euros.
Philipp Hartmannsgruber, Research Associate at the Associate Professorship of Didactics in Sport and Health, presented the results of the three-year project at the Fachforum Oberbayern on March 30, where Klaus Holetschek, Bavarian State Minister for Health and Care, and Dr. Konrad Schober, District President of Upper Bavaria, gave the welcoming addresses. "With our project, we want to strengthen equal opportunities in health behaviour among children between the ages of three and six. To do this, we have chosen a holistic approach that not only focuses on the day-care centres, but also includes the children's environment and the parents," explains Hartmannsgruber.
The project was carried out in cooperation with two day-care centres and one after-school care centre from Munich - which dropped out during the course of the project for capacity reasons. "The special thing about PAKTan is that we were able to contribute our didactic expertise and develop a health-promoting intervention with participation of the professionals as well as the children and implement it in their living environment," explains Prof. Dr. Filip Mess, Head of the Associate Professorship of Didactics in Sport and Health.
First, a needs and situation analysis was conducted. Among other things, the children wore movement belts to determine their movement intensity and were given smaller voluntary tasks to do together with their parents, such as a visit to the playground or a discovery tour in the garden. Particularly in the case of quickness, which can be determined in a playful way by long jump, worrying tendencies emerged: "We had to find out in the survey that 80 percent of the children showed far below-average results after the Corona pandemic, compared to comparison groups of children from ten years ago," explains the Research Associate Hartmannsgruber.
After the analysis phase, interventions and adaptations were carried out, training was given to the professionals and a survey was conducted among the parents on the physical activity behaviour of their children. The focus of the interventions was mainly on playful movement offers in nature, such as classic games of tag, and new forms of movement that addressed all motor areas such as coordination, strength, mobility and endurance.
Exciting results emerged, such as that parents underestimate their children: "The parents thought their children move much less, but this was often not true - the children have a high urge to move. We have also seen great progress in motor development after the interventions. In the critical area of quickness, the children are now at an average to above-average level, which is a great result," Hartmannsgruber states.
The PAKTan project illustrates how intervention programs for three- to six-year-old children can playfully promote physical activity and motor performance. The results obtained provide important starting points for future projects and studies. The early childhood, health-oriented behavioural adaptation ensures tracking effects that the children internalize and take with them for later in life.
To the homepage of the Associate Professorship of Didactics in Sport and Health
To the homepage of the PAKTan project
To the homepage of Fachforum Oberbayern
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Filip Mess
Associate Professorship of Didactics in Sport and Health
Georg-Brauchle-Ring 60/62
80992 München
phone: 089 289 24520
e-mail: filip.mess(at)tum.de
Philipp Hartmannsgruber
Associate Professorship of Didactics in Sport and Health
Georg-Brauchle-Ring 60/62
80992 München
e-mail: philipp.hartmannsgruber(at)tum.de
Text: Bastian Daneyko
Photos: LZG Bayern/Jana Helloits/privat