Browsing by Subject "esiopetusikäinen lapsi"

The physical activity of children has a significant meaning impact in the holistic and safe growth, development, and learning of children. Children’s natural way to release energy and emotions is through exercise. The aim of physical education is for the child to adopt an active and healthy lifestyle, gain positive experiences from exercise and learn physical skills. Physical activity has a positive effect on a child's health and wellbeing. The aim of this qualitative case study is to investigate the views of preschool children about physical activity and to determine what they think physical activity is. The theme is current and significant, because only 10-20 percent of children under school age achieve the amount of physical activity required for normal growth and development. The study also considers the effect of gender on physical activity. 23 preschool-age children, 13 girls and 10 boys, participated in the study. The data collection method was an interview and the analysis method was quantification. The research results show that exercise is a happy thing for children. Only a few children experience fear when they exercise. The majority of preschool children like physical activity and feel that they are good at it. There are differences in the results between genders; boys experience physical activity more positively than girls do. All children can describe physical activity in some way and most of the children have a sports hobby.