Physical activity in disadvantaged pre-schools

We propose a group RCT using a nested-cohort design implemented over an 18-mo period. This design allows us to assess intervention effects at the 6- and 18-month follow-ups when the children assessed at baseline will still be attending the child care service (i.e., not transitioned to primary school). Our intervention has one intervention arm that incorporates four main intervention components; 1. Motor development program to increase physical activity (Jump In and Jump Out). 2. Promoting physical activity through active ‘energy’ breaks (Jump Up). 3. Integrating physical activity with other learning areas (Jump Through). 4. Reinforcing child care programs with home-based interventions (Jump Home). Intervention component 1: Gross motor development program (the Jump In and Jump Out program) Educators will be trained to implement the Jump Start program in their service. (This program comprises of a 20 minute structured and 30 minute unstructured Physical Activity program that will be implemented in the centres.) Training will comprise a 1-day intensive workshops and five booster sessions for educators, delivered to all intervention services through the virtual connection (i.e. skype) provided through the Early Start Facility or face-to-face. The training will commence one month before the start of the intervention and booster sessions will occur every month following the 1-day intensive workshop for 5 months lasting for approximately 2 hours each. Thirteen motor skills will be covered to accommodate the longer intervention period in this study. In each 20-min structured session, children are encouraged to explore the different movement concepts and components of a motor skill and then to practise the skill through a series of fun and developmentally appropriate skill activities. Structured sessions will usually occur in the mornings and unstructured sessions in the afternoons following the structured lessons. In each 30-min unstructured session, children are encouraged to participate in free-play games and activities that align with the skill taught in the structured lessons. Based on our pilot studies, services will implement these sessions 5 days/wk as they find this easier to incorporate into their daily schedule. Intervention component 2: Promoting physical activity through active ‘energy’ breaks (Jump Up) Educators in each service will identify two periods in the day (excluding lunch and nap/quiet time) when children are indoors and can self-select sedentary activities of at least 20-min duration. During designated ‘target periods’, an automatic timer will be programmed to sound at a pre-selected time after 20 min has elapsed. Educators will instruct children to transition to a space where they can move freely and safely, and will lead children through a set activity using one of the cards from the Energise Me! Resource. The Energise Me! resource comprises a set of 27 cards, each describing a 3-min energy break, which educators used to facilitate the energy breaks 2 times/day. Training for this component of the intervention will be built into the professional development workshops for the Jump Start program, which will occur one month prior to the commencement of the intervention. Training will comprise a 1-day intensive workshops and five booster sessions for educators, delivered to all intervention services through the virtual connection (i.e. skype) provided through the Early Start Facility or face-to-face. Intervention Component 3: Integrating physical activity with other learning areas (Jump Through) Educators will be trained to integrate the Jump Through program into their service over the intervention period. The Jump Through program integrates gross motor movement into learning experiences, such as maths, language, social studies and science activities. For example, "Count your kicks" is a math activity which encourages children to count how many balloons they can kick in one minute. Training will comprise a 1-day intensive workshops and five booster sessions for educators, delivered to all intervention services through the virtual connection (i.e. skype) provided through the Early Start Facility or face-to-face. Educators within each service will work together as a team to plan for integrating at least two Jump Through activities each lasting at least 10 min each day. Intervention Component 4. Reinforcing child care programs with home-based interventions (Jump Home) Parents will be given opportunities to learn about Jump Start and participate in the same activities at home that the children have been participating in at the service. Parents/caregivers will be emailed and provided with hard copies of the home challenges each week. These challenges will focus on the same motor skill covered during the week in the Jump Start program and include the same activities the children participate in. Process evaluation: To determine the level of fidelity to the intervention for each childcare service, we will monitor the delivery of the intervention by asking educators to complete a brief online checklist for each Jump start component at the end of each week. In addition, we will observe one randomly-selected day using a purposively developed observation checklist in each service every 6 months and conduct an online survey to collect qualitative information on their experiences with Jump Start at the 6-month and 18-month time points. We will also collect data on days children attend each service. To determine the level of fidelity of the home-based component, parents will be asked to indicate the number of home challenges they completed with their child using a checklist provided online or hard copy.