Physical literacy
Physical literacy is a vital concept that encompasses the fundamental movement skills necessary for children, such as catching, jumping, running, and throwing. Mastery of these skills fosters confidence and competence in physical activities, enabling children to engage in sports and varied physical pursuits throughout their lives. The term was popularized by Margaret Whitehead, who emphasized the interconnectedness of physical and intellectual development in children.
In recent decades, there has been growing concern about decreasing physical activity among children, particularly in developed countries, leading to issues like childhood obesity and related health problems. This has sparked renewed interest in physical literacy as a means to encourage active lifestyles from an early age. Advocates suggest that physical literacy is not just about learning sports but developing a broad range of skills that enhance self-esteem and promote lifelong fitness.
Efforts to promote physical literacy have gained traction globally, with various organizations, including the United Nations and the International Olympic Committee, supporting its importance. These initiatives aim to ensure that all children, particularly those in marginalized groups, have opportunities to develop their physical abilities and lead active lives.
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Physical literacy
Physical literacy refers to fundamental movement skills that children need. These include catching, jumping, running, and throwing. Developing these skills allows children to be confident and competent in life and to participate in physical activities, including games and sports.
While in the past many children mastered these skills in spontaneous, unstructured play and physical education classes, lifestyles in developed countries became much less active during the latter twentieth century. A rise in childhood obesity and related diseases—including high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and high cholesterol—prompted a new interest in physical activity education. Moreover, increasing numbers of adults become markedly less active after they leave school, possibly contributing to lifelong health problems.
The concept of physical literacy arose in part because children who are less active have less confidence in their abilities, and they may be caught in a cycle of inactivity due to this lack of confidence. In many cases, physical education was focused on teaching children to play sports rather than teaching them to be active and find satisfaction in mastering skills.
Physical literacy is important for adults as well. Confidence in one's ability to perform physical tasks can have an impact on lifelong fitness.
Background
Margaret Whitehead created the term physical literacy. Whitehead believed that intellectual and physical development of children go hand in hand and should not be viewed as separate things. Infants, for example, develop physically and intellectually at the same time, and those areas are entwined—movement and understanding cannot be separated for babies, because movement is the basis of development for infants. Whitehead believed that educators were ignoring the necessity of movement in education.
The concept originated in philosophy. Twentieth-century French philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Maurice Merleau-Ponty produced a doctoral study in which they explored embodiment and human perceptions about the world. In philosophical terms, embodiment refers to one's experience of one's body, the means through which individuals experience the world. A human uses his or her body without needing to understand how or why it works. Without the body, thought, emotion, language, interaction, and other actions would not be possible.
Whitehead shared her views in 1993 in Melbourne, Australia, in a paper she presented at the International Association of Physical Education and Sport for Girls and Women Congress. Whitehead continued to challenge dualist thinking and advocate what is described as inclusive physical education. Rather than teach children to play a sport, physical literacy advocates believe they should learn a variety of skills that will give them enjoyment. Over time, the physical skills they learn will become more complex and developed. These skills will enable children to both participate in sports that use the skills and remain active throughout their lives. The physical accomplishments will color other aspects of life and aid individuals in gaining competence in many areas by boosting self-confidence and self-esteem.
Whitehead details the ideas of physical literacy in the book Physical Literacy: Throughout the Lifecourse. She advocates making physical literacy the focus of physical education. She and others believed that in many developed countries, including the United Kingdom, physical education was focused on performance, and devoted effort to boosting the most promising athletes at the expense of students with average or below-average abilities. This slant, they noted, further disillusioned less gifted students, who were reluctant to participate and in many cases avoided physical activity altogether.
Overview
Children with better-developed motor skills tend to be more active. Advocates of physical literacy suggest parents spend time playing with their children every day. Like learning to speak, physical literacy involves observing, copying, attempting, and practicing skills. Infants, for example, develop basic motor skills by grasping, rolling over, sitting, and crawling. Parents can encourage these actions by providing stimulating environments and experiences for babies. Infants should spend time on their backs as well as their stomachs; this encourages them to raise their heads and develop different muscle groups. Parents can put enticing toys on the floor out of a child's reach to encourage the infant to roll over and learn to crawl. As they grow stronger, babies learn to cruise, holding on to furniture, and eventually to walk, having built on skills already learned.
Older children also reach physical activity milestones on the road to physical literacy. These skills include forward rolls, striking an object, throwing a ball, and balancing on one foot. All indicate a level of competence built upon learned skills. As Canadian Sport for Life explains, if a child cannot throw, he or she will not succeed in baseball, softball, bowling, soccer, football, or other sports involving balls. The Canadian government has made lifelong activity a goal of physical education programs. Canadian Sport for Life has established a series of stages of physical literacy: Active Start (to age 6), FUNdamentals, Learning to Train, Training to Train, Training to Compete, Training to Win, and Active for Life. Other countries, including the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Australia, and several countries in Africa, have also embraced the concept of physical literacy. Organizations including the United Nations Office on Sport for Development and Peace, the International Olympic Committee, and the International Paralympic Committee have endorsed physical literacy.
American physical education experts added physical literacy to their goals in the 2014 National Standards & Grade-Level Outcomes for K–12 Physical Education. The Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE) advocated a reevaluation of the American physical education curriculum and programs in schools as well as policies.
Discussions of physical education in the American education system increasingly address the need for lifelong activity. At the same time, education and health experts have begun focusing on public health messages. Children with physical and developmental disabilities, girls, minorities, and children in low-income households are most at risk of not developing physical literacy. Children in Southern states have been found to be less physically active.
Bibliography
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