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June/July 2002

By Kristen Pratt Machado

Are We Containerizing Our Children?

I remember living in my backyard as a very young child, before I started school. I helped my dad pick the tomato bugs out of our garden. I tried to imitate my mother's graceful handstands performed during our picnics on the lawn. I played mud pies with our dog, Blue, and I tried to throw my Nerf ball through the basketball hoop (albeit, not very adeptly) affixed to our garage door. Granted, I had the benefit of beautiful weather growing up in Los Angeles and the luxury of a mother who did not work outside the home and never tired of playing baby games with me. I am sure that neither my parents nor I realized how important these seemingly mundane activities were to my physical and cognitive development.

In February, the National Association for Sport & Physical Education (NASPE), Reston, Va, released physical activity guidelines for infants and toddlers. According to NASPE, these guidelines are the first to meet the developmental needs of infants, toddlers, and reschoolers. Guidelines for both infants and toddlers/preschoolers are available on the Web at: www.aahperd.org/NASPE/template.cfm?template=toddlers.html.

Why do infants and toddlers need physical activity guidelines? Jane E. Clark, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Kinesiology, University of Maryland, College Park, and chair of NASPE's Early Childhood Physical Activity Guidelines Task Force, says, "Because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveillance data show that children are becoming heavier. Obesity is an epidemic in the United States and it's not all nutritionally caused so one part of that puzzle is physical activity."

NASPE also warns of "containerizing" our children. Strollers, playpens, and car and infant seats have become the containers that parents often use to encase their children for hours at a time. NASPE believes that this will have severe consequences such as delaying the development of rolling over, crawling, and walking skills and even cognitive deficits. Clark cites safety and time as causes for this containerization. "Parents do not have the time. There is the whole issue of not having the time in your life to accomplish everything. And the other factor is the lack of safe neighborhoods and safe places to play for children of this age group-infants to 5 years of age," Clark says.

The authors of "Encouraging Exploration" (page 30), a story on the importance of self-initiated mobility for children with mobility impairments, add a twist to this discussion. They mention the containerization problem and discuss its effect on children with mobility problems. They write, "If early exploration is being demonstrated as a key factor in a child's development, then is it not just as critical to provide the same opportunities for children who are mobility impaired? If families are containerizing their young children, then what are we doing to children with disabilities who spend time in static equipment like strollers, special chairs, and standing frames?"

They have made a difference by developing programs and equipment to encourage children with mobility impairments to explore their environments independently at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University, California.

Maybe all parents and caregivers of able-bodied and mobility-impaired kids alike need to make more time, put away the "containers," and play a mean game of patty-cake with their youngsters.

—Kristen Pratt Machado is no longer Editor of Rehab Management. Please address any correspondence to Sarah Schmelling, Senior Editor, at cwolski@medpubs.com.

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