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Childhood obesity: Child’s play
What can be done about the rising levels of childhood obesity around the world? Kate Cracknell talks to the people behind a range of initiatives designed to promote physical activity among children – all with a strong focus on fun and play
Healthy Habits
Kathleen Tullie - Founder of the BOKS initiative, a before-school programme funded by Reebok – explains how getting kids active before class can set them up for both learning and life
When was BOKS founded, and why?
BOKS (Build Our Kids’ Success) was founded in 2009 at one elementary school in Natick, Massachusetts, US – originally under the name Fit Kidz Get Up & Go, prior to Reebok’s involvement.
The reason was quite simple. After 18 years in the corporate world of real estate finance, I tried my hand at being a stay-at-home mum, but I only lasted a few months. I read the book Spark by Harvard Medical School professor Dr John Ratey, which describes the profound effect exercise has on the mind, and I was hooked.
I was inspired by the fact that physical activity, especially before school, can have an impact on both classroom performance and behaviour. Yet the US school systems are sorely lacking in opportunities for our kids to be active: fewer than 4 per cent of elementary schools have daily PE, and only 57 per cent of schools have regular recess. It’s no wonder obesity rates are rising.
I was already getting my kids and others in the neighbourhood together for impromptu soccer matches and running races before the school bus arrived in the morning, and I wanted to see if I could activate other parents and their kids to get involved. I teamed up with two other mums – Jen Lawrence, a CrossFit enthusiast, and Cheri Levitz, who had a background as a lawyer – and we developed two 12-week curricula for the school year. Word started to spread in surrounding areas too, and I started getting calls from other parents wanting to start a programme at their schools.
So what is BOKS?
BOKS is a free, before-school physical activity programme designed for elementary school kids aged 5–11, although we’ve recently developed a curriculum for middle schools too –grades 5 to 8 (ages 11–14).
Its goal is to get kids moving in the morning and their minds ready for a day of learning. It teaches motor skills, functional fitness movements, and how to be part of a team and play with different ages. Its mission: to promote the profound impact of physical activity on a child’s mind, body and community.
The founding principal of BOKS is that physical activity, especially before school, can improve classroom performance and behaviour – but it also plays a positive role in the obesity epidemic and kids’ overall health and wellbeing.
Each day, BOKS trainers guide kids through a 45-minute lesson plan that includes a warm-up, a running-related activity, a skill of the week, group games and a BOKS Bit – an age-appropriate nutritional tip developed by Tufts Medical Center and designed for kids to learn and share at home.
How did the link with Reebok start?
One of the members of our school board was from Reebok, and they suggested we went in to pitch for promotional items. A senior executive joined the meeting and explained that Reebok had made it a priority to reverse the culture of spectatorship to become a culture of participation. He believed we had to start with young people, and that BOKS was the perfect way to give kids around the world access to physical activity. We realised Reebok could help us reach many more children: since then, with the support of our pro-bono partners, we’ve grown to over 1,000 schools.
How is BOKS run in schools?
The programme is designed to run for two 12-week sessions, once in the autumn and then the winter/spring. However, the curriculum is created to be flexible and adaptable. There are schools that run three- to 10-week programmes, while other schools offer a BOKS drop-in programme every day during term time. In some towns, the local YMCA uses BOKS as part of its before-school programming. In others, they offer BOKS to the whole school.
Of the 1,000 schools enrolled in BOKS throughout the world, the highest concentration is in Massachusetts, US.
What difference does BOKS make?
I believe that BOKS has a tremendous power to effectuate change: I had one special needs teacher tell me they’d never known anything have such an impact on the children. We also run surveys at the end of our sessions, and one question speaks volumes: when we ask if a child wants to come back next session, 96 per cent say yes.
The simplicity of BOKS is what makes it so effective. Anybody can become a BOKS trainer, from parents and teachers to nurses and custodians – they just need the passion to make a difference in the lives of our children. All we need is one champion in every school. That’s how, together, we can make a huge difference in children’s lives.
I think one of the reasons we’ve seen success is that we’re walking the walk. In schools where we have parent trainers/volunteers, the kids are seeing that being active isn’t only good for them but for their whole family. By looking at comments in the surveys, we notice that kids are encouraging their families to be more active. Instead of staying inside at the weekend, they’re suggesting their families go on hikes or to the park. Kids are also becoming more aware of healthy nutrition and they’re teaching their families about it.
BOKS helps the younger generation embrace the healthy habits that will help reverse the obesity epidemic over time.
How is BOKS funded?
The majority of the funding currently comes via The Reebok Foundation, for which BOKS is its primary programme. We’ve also received more localised funding through organisations like The Boston Foundation.
What are your main challenges?
One of the main challenges is continuing to build evidence to prove to the education system that physical activity on a daily basis is critical to academic performance, as well as the overall health and wellness of the student.
What can fitness facility operators learn from BOKS?
The biggest learning is that kids like to be active when given the opportunity. If physical activity is fun and engaging, kids will come back for more. It’s our responsibility to provide opportunities.
PLAY FOR LIFE
Playgrounds are vital to children’s welfare, says Darell Hammond, founder and CEO of KaBOOM!
What is KaBOOM! and why was it founded?
KaBOOM! is a national non-profit organisation in the US, dedicated to saving play for America’s children.
Our children are playing less than any previous generation, and this lack of play is causing them profound physical, intellectual, social and emotional harm.
Our mission is to create great play spaces through the participation and leadership of communities. We would like to see a place to play within walking distance of every child in America.
Why are playgrounds so important?
Play is the ‘work’ of kids. It’s a way for them to exercise their mind, their body and their wiggles. It’s the way they rationalise the world around them. It’s the way they learn social connections. It’s both very intricate and very simple, and it’s the foundation for a lifelong ability to have relationships, to have health and to live a full life.
We therefore need to ensure all kids have access to safe places to play.
How many sites have you built?
Although not yet under the KaBOOM! name, the first KaBOOM! playground build took place in October 1995, in Washington, DC. KaBOOM! was officially founded in 1996 and has since raised more than US$200m, rallied a million corporate and community volunteers, led the construction of over 2,600 playgrounds, and inspired a movement for a child’s right to play.
What more can be done?
The problem is, we’ve designed kids out of cities. Not enough playspaces are being built, and those that exist are often in disrepair. Fears surrounding lawsuits and safety are trumping common sense, resulting in sterile, uninspiring play environments. Recess is being eliminated from our nation’s schools. Kids are overscheduled, and in their free time many choose to stay indoors, lulled by television, computers and video games.
At KaBOOM! we talk about creating ‘playable’ cities, by which we mean cities that take steps to ensure active play becomes the easy choice for every child, every day. People already talk about walkability and bike-ability, but those are generally focused on adults. We want to encourage communities to design family-friendly, child-friendly cities once again.
Are any cities doing it right?
We’ve recently set up the Playful City USA programme, in partnership with the Humana Foundation, and this year we’ve recognised 212 cities that we believe are on the right journey. They’re setting bold goals, they’re trying to solve big problems using play as the solution.
Chicago, for example, and what the mayor’s doing there – he’s finding the money to build 300 new playgrounds, so there’s one within a seven-minute walk of every person living in Chicago.
I’m excited by some of the examples we’re seeing, but it’s just the start. We need to intensify efforts, recognise best practice and aim for a domino effect whereby more cities adopt family-friendly, child-friendly policies. We get tens of thousands of applications every year for the 200 playgrounds we end up building, so we need other people to join the cause.
What must society as a whole do to reverse the rise in childhood obesity?
Cities need to offer amenities that allow families to socialise. Playgrounds are important, but the whole city should be a playground with parks, sidewalks and paths. Play should happen everywhere.
“The whole city should be a playground. Play should happen everywhere”
FUELLING THEIR IMAGINATIONS
This summer, Disney came on-board with the UK’s Change4Life programme in a six-week partnership designed to get the nation’s kids more active. Marianthi O’Dwyer, vice president and head of living well at Disney, explains why
Why did Disney want to get involved in Change4Life?
We conducted research and listened to thousands of parents across the UK with a view to understanding the healthy lifestyle goals they had for their family and how we could help. Our findings showed that over three-quarters of mums thought being active and physically fit should be fun, and nine out of 10 mums said a Disney healthy living programme would help their families.
What exactly was Disney’s involvement in Change4Life?
At its heart, the Disney brand is all about storytelling and creativity, and the 10 Minute Shake-up campaign put these qualities to the fore. It used some of our most popular characters from film and TV to encourage children to do an extra 10 minutes of activity a day, with a view to getting the country moving for an additional 100 million minutes over the six weeks of the summer holidays.
The partnership was about bringing stories to life through fun activities that inspired children to get active. From classics like Mickey Mouse and Cinderella, to Disney Pixar favourites like Finding Nemo, through to characters like Olaf and Elsa from our latest animation Frozen, the aim was to provide families with a wealth of fun and simple-to-follow 10-minute activities to really get hearts pumping.
How did it work?
This campaign, brought to families by Change4Life with a little magic from Disney, provided tools and games to shake things up and get kids more active – and ultimately healthier.
Free packs were available via the Change4Life website, each containing inspiration, ideas and tools to get kids doing fun bursts of activity for 10 minutes. There was also a stopwatch for timing 10 minutes of activity, a wall chart and stickers for monitoring activity in the home, and a pack of 10 Minute Shake-Up Disney activity cards.
How did this fit in with Disney’s broader strategy?
We’re proud that Disney plays such a big part in the lives of kids growing up here in the UK and around the world. We also know that the brand has the ability to impact people – and especially children – incredibly powerfully, and we take this responsibility very seriously. Bob Iger, chair and CEO of the Walt Disney Company, has therefore pledged the company’s commitment to using the unique relationship that children have with Disney characters in a positive way, to help families lead healthier lives.
Our vision with the Change4Life partnership was to inspire families to flourish by encouraging life-long healthy behaviours through storytelling, imagination, fun and play.
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