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Play Active Program – physical activity policy and training for Early Childhood Education and Care

Play Active is a national, low-cost, evidence-based program to boost energetic play in early childhood education and care. It offers free professional development for educators.

PLAYCE

With rising levels of physical and mental health issues, ensuring children establish good physical activity behaviours early in life is more important than ever.

PLAYCE Cohort Study: Moving well for optimal child health and development

The PLAYCE Cohort was established to investigate how movement behaviours change over early to late childhood, across key behaviour settings and relationships with health and development

Playful Bytes

Nurturing children's health together: A collaboration between early childhood education and care (ECEC) educators and parents on active play and eating well

Barriers and enablers to promoting grandchildren’s physical activity and reducing screen time: a qualitative study with Australian grandparents

With an increasing number of grandparents providing care to their grandchildren, calls have been made for these caregivers to be considered important stakeholders in encouraging children's engagement in health-promoting behaviors, such as physical activity.

Associations between natural blue and green space and preschool children's movement behaviours

Natural outdoor environments provide important settings for children to engage in physical activity. It is unclear if these relationships also exist in preschool aged children. We examined associations between amount and type of neighbourhood vegetation and blue space, proximity to the beach and preschooler's device-measured movement behaviours.

Where are preschoolers active in childcare centers? A hot-spot analysis using GIS, GPS and accelerometry data

This study investigated where preschool children were more or less active in outdoor play areas in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) centers using a novel method of combined device-measured physical activity, spatial data and on-site audit data.

Play Active physical activity policy intervention and implementation support in early childhood education and care: results from a pragmatic cluster randomised trial

Policy interventions to increase physical activity in early childhood education and care (ECEC) services are effective in increasing physical activity among young children. However, a large proportion of ECEC services do not have nor implement a physical activity policy.

Longitudinal effects of dog ownership, dog acquisition, and dog loss on children’s movement behaviours: findings from the PLAYCE cohort study

Regular physical activity is important for children's physical and mental health, yet many children do not achieve recommended amounts of physical activity. Dog ownership has been associated with increased physical activity in children, however, there have been no longitudinal studies examining this relationship.

Association between preschooler outdoor play and home yard vegetation as measured by high resolution imagery: Findings from the PLAYCE study

Outdoor play in the home yard is an important source of physical activity for many preschoolers. This study investigated if home yard size and vegetation are related to preschooler outdoor play time.