Early Years professionals’ perceptions and practices of motor skill development, physical activity, and healthy eating

Michael Duncan, Katie Fitton Davies, Eileen Africa, Estera Sevel

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Abstract

This study presents the perceptions and practices of fundamental movement skills (FMS), healthy eating habits and physical activity (PA) in early years professionals (EYP). An online mixed-method survey comprising questions relating to practices of FMS, healthy eating habits and PA was completed by 137 EYPs (128 females). Frequency analysis assessed and reported responses to fixed response questions, and thematic analysis was used for open-ended questions. Results indicated that EYPs understood FMS and were compliant with national guidelines in relation to PA and healthy eating. However, EYPs identified considerable barriers to developing FMS, PA and healthy eating in preschoolers.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)(In-press)
Number of pages13
JournalEducation 3-13
Volume(In-press)
Early online date3 Nov 2022
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 3 Nov 2022

Bibliographical note

© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis GroupThis is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/),which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Keywords

  • Preschoolers
  • health behaviours
  • motor skills
  • nutrition
  • survey

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education
  • Life-span and Life-course Studies

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