Medverkande på konferens Rörelse, motorik och fysisk aktivitet hos förskolebarn
Keynote 1, Finland
Title of presentation
Fundamental motor skills of Finnish preschool-aged children – findings from Skilled Kids study
Abstract
This presentation will discuss about fundamental motor skills of 2 to 7-years-old children (n= 1,136) attending early childhood education (ECE) at randomly selected Finnish day-care centres (N = 37). All children’s motor skills were measured with TGMD-3 test battery (Ulrich 2013) and 4-7-years old children with KTK test (Kiphard & Schilling 1974, 2007). Based on the results, the role of environment seems interesting: children living in metropolitan area were less skilled than children in smaller cities. Even childcare center –related variables, like the amount of surfaces in outdoor yard correlated positively with motor skills. When supporting children’s motor development, ECE teachers should take all advantage from the important role of environment.
Dr. Arja Sääkslahti is a senior researcher, docent (adjunct professor) in the area of children’s physical education. She comes from the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Most of her publications deal with preschool aged children’s physical activities, fundamental motor skill development, and health. She is leader of Skilled Kids –project, investigating preschool children’s fundamental motor skills.
Keynote 2, Danmark
Title of presentation
Physical activity in young children
Abstract
The common belief is that young children by nature are highly active. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that preschoolers may by far be as active as assumed. Furthermore, over the last decade, profound changes in the way children and parents entertain themselves using various screen-based electronic media devices might among others challenge young children´s participating in physical activity promoting activities.
In this talk I will present and discuss recommendations that highlights the importance of young children being physical active. The focus will especially be on the importance of motor skill development and its relation to health perspectives in a broad perspective. I will combine this with current and past quantitative research that has been carried out in our center to describe preschooler’s physical activity level in the last 15 years.
Acknowledgement
The Danish foundation TrygFonden, Post.doc. Line Grønholt Olesen, Professor Anders Grøntved, Associate Professor Peter Lund Kristensen & participating Municipalities and children, parents and preschool staff.
Karsten Froberg, Associate professor, Dr. h.c., is a fellow of the European Colleges of Sports Science. He has been employed at University of Southern Denmark since 1970. He has been doing research in children’s sport and children’s physical activity and its relation to health since then. He has been dealing with major cross sectional as well as longitudinal studies in the area, both national and international. He has coordinated and conducted national research projects related to trainability in children and training of junior elite cyclists. He was in the board of the Odense School Child Study. He initiated The Svendborg Intervention Project, the Copenhagen Schoolchild Intervention Study (CoSCIS) and the Odense Preschool study. He coordinated the project Studying movement and learning in Danish Schools. He has been in the scientific board of the international research project the European Youth Heart Study (EYHS) and the responsible coordinator of the project in Denmark. He has been the leader of the Centre of Research in Childhood health and for many years been used as a national and international expert in relation to physical activity and childhood health. He has until now been author, co-author and editor on 190 original papers, books and book chapters.
Keynote 3, Island
Title of presentation
Physical activity a public health issue in early childhood – A Icelandic experience
Abstract
In child public health nature and nurture comes together to transform living conditions of the future generations. It is the core of public health. It involves promoting the health and wellbeing of young people in the widest sense. In this presentation we will explore the trends in physical activity and motor skill development in early childhood into school age from a public health perspective. How individual, social and political forces and factors act together to create policy and trends in the physical activities and skills of children with Iceland as an example.
Dr. Gudrún Kristjánsdóttir, RN, Professor, born in 1959 in Olafsfjördur in North of Iceland raised in Uppsala Sweden. Studied Nursing Science at the University of Iceland and specialized in Children‘s Nursing and graduated from Boston University in 1986, USA and finished her PhD/DrPH studies at the Nordic School of Public Health in Gothenburg Sweden in 1996. Her main research areas are health and wellbeing of children and parents. She is currently a Full Professor of Nursing and chair of Children‘s nursing at the University of Iceland.
Dr. Rúnar Vilhjálmsson, Professor, born in 1958 in Reykjavik, Iceland. Received a BA-degree in Sociology from the University of Iceland, and MS and PhD degrees in Medical Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has published numerous scientific articles and book chapters in the areas of child and adolescent health-related behavior, organization and use of health services, and adult mental health.
Keynote 4, Norge
Title of presentation
Learning landscapes: How landscapes afford play, physical activity and motor learning in pre-school children
Ingunn Fjørtoft is Professor emeritus, Dr. Scient., at University South-Eastern Norway, Faculty of Humanities, Sports and Education Science. Her field of research includes physical activity and motor development in children, outdoor environments and outdoor education based on a dynamic system theory approach with focus on: ” Learning landscapes: the materiality and contexts for learning with the environment ”. Field of teaching is connected to early years education including, BA, Master and PhD- courses. A broad field of international cooperation is part of the academic field.
Keynote 5, Japan
Abstract
Japanese preschool children’s motor ability began to decrease 30 years ago and has remained low. We suspect that one of the reasons is the narrowness of preschool in Japan, as the physical fitness scores of children in preschools with broad floors and playgrounds are higher than those in narrow preschools. Currently, the lack of nurseries (preschools for children whose parents work full time) is a serious problem in Japan, as shown by the very long waiting lists for nurseries, which accept children until they reach full capacity and as a result are highly crowded. Additionally, data from our pilot study show that children’s physical fitness scores are polarized, suggesting a large disparity in motor ability among preschool children.
Dr. Kanae Watanabe is the professor of Dep. Human science, Kanagawa University, Japan. Her doctoral research (Ph.D, 1994) focused on motor control. Her research interest has mainly been children’s health and physical education and growth and development.
Keynote 6, Sverige
Title of presentation
Are physically active preschool teachers more prone to offer movement occasions for children in preschool?
Abstract
We will present results from a study among professional preschool teachers and preschool teacher students. The aims of the study were to investigate facilitators and barriers for children’s movement and physical activity in the preschool setting, and the preschool teachers’ perceptions of physical activity and motor skills training in the preschool in relation to their own physical activity habits and habitus for movement. Moreover we will shortly present an ongoing participatory study among preschool teachers.
Dr. Ann-Christin Sollerhed is a senior lecturer in the area of public health and physical education at Kristianstad University, Sweden. Her main research area is motor skills and physical activity among children and adolescents in a life-span perspective – Young today, adult tomorrow!
Dr. Jan-Eric Ekberg is a senior lecturer at Malmö University. His teaching and research interests include learning and movement in preschool and school. Another research interest is curriculum theory, especially what can be considered knowledge worthy of "mediating" in different school forms, especially aimed at movement and the school subject physical education.