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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Are Safety and Academics Keeping AZ Preschoolers from the Playground?

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Friday, January 13, 2012   

PHOENIX – Hopscotch, jump rope and tag are simple childhood pastimes, but a new study suggests Arizona preschoolers in child care may not be getting enough of that outdoor play. A focus group of child-care providers looked at potential barriers to physical activity in child care and found that financial constraints, safety concerns and a focus on academics over play were the three main obstacles.

Dr. Kristen Copeland, who led the study, says it goes to show how well-intentioned policies may have unintended consequences.

"Daily physical activity is essential for preschool-aged children's development and for preventing obesity, but parents' and teachers' concerns about injury and school readiness may be keeping children from being physically active."

Copeland, a pediatrician at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, says childhood obesity is a national epidemic, and that time in child care may be a child's only opportunity for outdoor play. She says these findings show that there may be a need to re-balance the priorities of injury prevention and kindergarten readiness with the promotion of physical activity. Three-fourths of preschool-age children in the U.S. attend child care.

In the study, many child-care providers cited budgetary reasons for why their centers could not offer children optimal physical activity. But Copeland says youngsters don't need fancy playground equipment to be active.

"What's more conducive to physical activity is portable play equipment - so things like balls or jump ropes. And also the adults' activities on the playground. Children are more active when their teachers or their parents are being active with them."

Several of the care providers in the study did recognize that learning can be incorporated through active play and that the energy release from outdoor activities can help put children in a better mindset to learn.

The study, "Societal Values and Policies May Curtail Preschool Children's Physical Activity in Child Care Centers," will be published in the February 2012 issue of the medical journal Pediatrics.



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