Until recently, early childhood specialists typically ignored the need for formal instruction focused on young children’s physical development. We now know that preschool children are at a critical stage of language and brain development, as well as physical development, and can greatly benefit from planned instruction aimed at achieving physical literacy. Most people are familiar with the term “literacy” as it relates to a child’s reading or writing skills. However, fewer adults are able to define the term “physical literacy,” which describes the proficiency in a wide variety of fundamental movement skills and concepts. In this post, SHAPE America discusses physical literacy in young children.

The Health Professions Mentorship Program (HPMP) is an exciting two-year curriculum out of the CUNY School of Medicine designed for rising high school juniors and seniors considering careers in healthcare. As part of the 2017 HPMP summer programming, the students were asked to provide insight into physical activity behaviors and preferences. In this post, we summarize the results of the students' research into adolescent physical activity preferences and describe a sample program that the HPMP students developed based on these results.