“We know that the school day tends to have kind of long periods of sedentary behavior and screens have really been incorporated for various purposes in the school settings.”
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Limiting screen time and taking breaks from sitting will help kids in the classroom get moving again, according to new guidelines aimed at addressing sedentary behavior in school-aged children.
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Valerie Carson, an associate professor at the University of Alberta’s faculty of kinesiology, sport, and recreation, was among an international panel of experts to help shape the recommendations in a report released in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. She said they heard from educators, parents, and school administrators that this kind of information was needed.
“We know that the school day tends to have kind of long periods of sedentary behavior and screens have really been incorporated for various purposes in the school settings,” she said.
Carson said research suggests that engaging in long periods of sedentary behavior without breaks can have detrimental impacts on health, including physical health.
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“But then with the screens, we see excessive use of screens which is associated with negative physical health, negative mental health, negative social, emotional health,” she said. “Screens can definitely be a really important tool in schools, but it’s really about how do we maximize the benefits of them and minimize the harms of them.”
Carson said with the COVID-19 pandemic, screen time and sedentary behavior have increased.
“As the pandemic has gone on, some of that has decreased but we still haven’t seen children and youth go back to kind of pre-pandemic levels, so that still remains high,” she said.
The report outlines several recommendations to address sedentary behaviour. The first is to break up extended periods of sitting by standing, stretching, or other movements at least once every 30 minutes for ages five to 11 years and at least once every hour for ages 12 to 18 years.
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“It doesn’t necessarily need to be something kind of vigorous in activity although it could also be like an active break,” Carson said.
The second recommendation is to incorporate movement into homework, and limit how much homework children should be doing outside of school.
“For the homework, the recommendations are in a Canadian context of 10 minutes (of homework) per grade,” Carson said. “So, for example, in Grade 1, there should be no more than 10 minutes per day and then in Grade 6, it should be no more than 60 minutes per day.”
The final recommendation is limiting screen time by taking a break at least once every 30 minutes, along with using them to enhance learning as opposed to being the default option.
Carson said the recommendations don’t solely fall on the responsibility of schools and teachers to implement.
“Everyone who cares for and works with school-aged children and youth can contribute. So parents, caregivers, policymakers, health-care providers, I think everyone can kind of play a role in implementing these recommendations,” she said.
