Download - Playground@Landscape

ACTIVITY
Movement from the outset
By Uwe Lübking, German Association of Towns
and Municipalities (DStGB)
Children have a natural urge to move around. They jump, climb,
balance or test their capabilities in other ways. If we're honest,
however, the sight of children playing outdoors is becoming rarer and
rarer. This lack of mobility indicates serious consequences for the
children concerned.
The findings are alarming:
● 60% of children have postural problems by the time they start school
● 30% of children are overweight by the time they start school
● 40% of children demonstrate weaknesses in their physical
coordination
● 50% of children can't run backwards anymore
● 44% of year 4 pupils suffer from occasional back pain and 8%
from permanent back pain.
Increasing physical passivity has extensive effects on health. These range
from a low level of physical fitness to postural problems and poor mental
capacity. Long-term effects in adulthood concern the early onset of cardiovascular
diseases and back pain. One third of patients newly diagnosed with
Type 2 diabetes (adult-onset diabetes) today are adolescents. Experts also
report an increase in accidents relating to poor physical control amongst
young people.
The children of today are often referred to as the 'backseat generation'. An
increasing number of children no longer master the routine task of cycling
e.g. keeping on track. This means there will be children who don't see bikes
as a means of transport.
The reasons for this lack of mobility are complex: many parents feel that
the route to school is too dangerous for their children or don't send their
children to the nearest primary school but to their chosen school, which
can often only be reached by car. Public areas are becoming more and more
condensed, so there is often nowhere for children to play near their home
or adults rule out such places as problematic. Even when there are places
for children to run around, they often stay at home, preferring to spend
their free time in front of the TV or computer. The amount of time children
spend outside has been decreasing since the seventies, from an
average of four hours to just one hour.
There are also additional problems for uneducated families: bad diet,
smoking around children and an excessive amount of time spent at
the computer are often a hotbed for weight problems, lack of concentration
and speech disorders. 7.6% of children indicate problems
in social behaviour, 34% of six-year-olds have language or speech
disorders and 7.2% of children have a noticeable mental illness.
A child's natural urge to move around should be better met in
nurseries. A 'sitting nursery' needs to become a 'physical education
nursery', which, in many cases occurs in collaboration
with sports clubs or other institutions, for example. The concept
of a physical education nursery should be implemented
as extensively as possible. A PE nursery will establish
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