Destination: Rutland

Physical activity can be defined as any form of bodily movement that makes our body expend a given amount of energy (Caspersen, Powel & Christenson, 1985). While exercise is a type of of physical activity that is structured, planned, repetitive and has a short-term or long-term goal (Caspersen, Powel & Christenson, 1985). Other types of physical activity include sports (leisure oriented) and occupational (related to work and house-hold chores). For further clarification and additional information about physical activity, please refer to the article: Physical Activity, Exercise, and Physical Fitness: Definitions and Distinctions for Health-Related Research by Caspersen et al. (1985).

"Windows of opportunity" are specific ages during which children have the capacity to easily, simultaneously and spontaneously learn and/or develop certain skills. For "movement", research has showed that the window is the age range between 0-7 therefore it is crucial that children try and experience different forms in movement: crawling, running, walking, hopping, stepping, etc. Being active from a young age can have a long-term positive impact as the child will be able to learn through playing and then use that base knowledge to apply it in different ways (either for recreational purposes or even to achieve competitive/professional success).

The Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) is a multi-step pathway that aims to guide and nurture an individual through their own physical activity journey so that he/she can obtain a high-quality and complete experience. There are seven interrelated consecutively steps: 

• Active Start: emphasis on movement over being sedentary

• FUNdamentals: ABCs = agility, balance, coordination and speed

• Learn to Train: basics or rules of an activity, before puberty

• Train to Train: onset of growth spurt, fast and complex development

• Train to Compete: physical conditioning and specialization in skills

• Train to Win: competition, achieving and maintaining performance 

• Active for life: competitive for life or fit for life or sports/activity leaders

For further information regarding each step, please visit "Sport for Life, Canada" or read the following manual (link: http://sportforlife.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/LTAD-2.1-EN_web.pdf?x96000)

The Government of Canada offers public resources in the form of physical activity tips for parents, teachers, guardians and caregivers that have children aged 5-11 years old under their care. On the other hand, the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology offers movement guidelines for the children during their early Years (ages 0 to 4, from infants to toddlers and pre-schoolers ). Whenever a child is engaging in physical activity or sports, it is important to consider the FIIT principle: frequency, intensity, time (duration) and type (i.e. strength, cardiorespiratory, flexibility, etc).

Additional resources: for any further information, please refer to the research article mentioned (in italics). If help is needed with the calculations you can e-mail me and I can, either, connect you with a kinesiologist or as a kinesiologist myself I can provide basic baseline services. It should be noted that if expert advice or assessment is needed, please consult your family doctor or physician.

• Peak Height Velocity (PHV): In 2017, Robert Malima defined PHV as the chronological age (amount of time passed since your birth) at which we can observe the maximum rate of growth in height. In other words we can associate PHV with the adolescent growth spurt. Over the last decades, there has been a lot of theories and attempts to create a formula or equation that precisely pinpoints the age of peak height velocity. 

  • Mirwald et al. (2002) in "An assessment of maturity from anthropometric measurements":​

  • University of Saskatchewan: https://wwwapps.usask.ca/kin-growthutility/phv_ui.php

• Target Height: the estimated final adult height a child will reach based on parents height​

  • Tanner (1989) in "Standards for Children's Height at Ages 2- 9 Years Allowing                           for Height of Parents ​

  • Luo, Albertsson-Wikland & Karlberg (1998) in "Target Height as Predicted by Parental     Heights in a Population-Based Study"​​​​

  • Both methods, although reliable, can have a small amount of underestimation of target height

• WHO Growth Charts: The World Health Organization (WHO) provide the general public with graphs that can help monitor children's physical growth and development. These charts allow parents or guardians to: evaluate the rate of growth of a child​​, observe any new or current growth patterns and make a comparison between your children's height/weight against other children of the same age. 

  • WHO Canada: Boys 2 to 19 Years Height and Weight 

  • WHO Canada: Girls 2 to 19 Years Height and Weight 

  • WHO Canada: Boys 2 to 19 Years Body Mass Index (BMI)

  • WHO Canada: Girls 2 to 19 Years Body Mass Index (BMI)

  • Remarks 

    • Data presented as percentile might sound confusing at first but the following example should be able to clarify any doubts or problems:

      • If a child is in the 70th percentile for height, it means they are taller than 70%                 of the other children their age

    • If a children stays within the 10th percentile or 90th percentile for a given measurement,       then it could be consider a sign of concern