A paediatric physiotherapist teamed up with specialist dietitians and a GP to help promote healthy eating and the benefits of being active to schoolchildren.
Before the summer holidays began Stacey Maughan, a senior paediatric physiotherapist at York Hospital, helped to deliver a health-focused assembly at Westfield Primary School.
As part of the session, children learnt how fun exercise could be by taking part in the dance craze known as ‘flossing’, which involved vigorous arm swinging.
‘I talked about the benefits of being active and why we need to include 60 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous activity,’ said Ms Maughan.
‘We also talked about the “daily mile”, which is receiving lots of publicity at the moment, and also making activity fun. This included getting children up on the stage to “floss” until they were out of breath. The children were really engaged.’
One-month follow up
Following the initial event, Ms Maughan re-visited the school a month later to see if the children had taken the advice on board and increased their activity levels.
She told Frontline: ‘We discussed what they remembered from the assembly – mostly that “flossing” counts as activity and they might live to be 100 years old!
‘And also about what changes they’ve made to healthy diet and activity, how to keep active during the summer holidays and how to set goals so they know if the changes they’ve made make a difference.’
Author: Robert Millett
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