Movement guidelines for young children: Engaging stakeholders to design dissemination strategies in the Hong Kong early childhood education context

Abstract

Background: Early childhood is a critical period during which patterns of movement behaviors are formed. The World Health Organization had endorsed guidelines for physical activity, sedentary behavior and sleep over a 24-hour time period, which had been adopted by the Centre for Health Protection of Hong Kong. This paper reports on stakeholder engagements that were conducted to inform the design of strategies to disseminate the guidelines in early childhood education settings. Methods: Using a mixed-methods study design, we sought to (a) assess the levels of awareness and knowledge of the Hong Kong movement guidelines for young children by stakeholders, and (b) identify the factors that influence the uptake of the said guidelines. We conducted an online survey of early childhood education teachers (N =314), twelve focus groups involving teachers (N = 18) and parents (N = 18), and individual interviews of key informants (N = 7) and domestic workers who provide care for preschool-aged children (N = 7). Descriptive statistics was used for the quantitative data and thematic analysis was performed on the qualitative data using an inductive and semantic approach following a realist framework. Findings: Our findings show that teachers were aware of the movement guidelines for young children, but their knowledge of the specific guidelines was deficient; parents and domestic workers had limited awareness and knowledge of the guidelines. Uptake of the movement guidelines is enabled by parent engagement, activities in the ECE centers, home-school cooperation, and community activities. The challenges include time poverty of parents, local curriculum requirements, limited physical spaces, social values, and pandemic-related restrictions. Conclusion: We recommend that dissemination strategies in the context of early childhood education settings should deliver knowledge content and support the stakeholders in mitigating the challenges associated with time, space, and social conditions.

Promoting physical activity in an early childhood education setting: integrating gross motor skills and mathematics

“…We note, however, that the lack of difference in the mathematics outcomes between the motormath and comparison groups also indicate that the gains in motor skills and physical activity did not come at the expense of mathematics learning. In societies like Hong Kong, where academic learning is highly prioritized (Capio, Jones, et al 2022), our findings offer important evidence to demonstrate to parents and educators that movement and physical activity in learning environments will not have any detrimental effect on academic outcomes.…”

“…As ECEC curricula increasingly become oriented towards academic preparation, teachers often have no choice but to meet literacy goals at the expense of free play and physical activities (Capio, Ho, et al 2022;Kreichauf et al 2012). In Hong Kong, for example, ECEC teachers face challenges associated with academic priorities and consequent time constraints which limit physical activities (Capio, Jones, et al 2022). Parents also expect that ECEC would prepare their children for a successful academic future.…”