Children's Physical Activity Declines from Age Seven

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​Newly released research from the UK shows that physical activity rates are on the decline for boys and girls from the age of 7. As highlighted in my blog post on Balanced and Barefoot by Angela Hanscom, a move towards a more sedentary lifestyle has a big impact on a child development impacting among other aspects of life, attention skills, controlling emotions, balance, decreased strength and endurance and a weakened immune system. Whilst a move towards a swipe culture and a decrease of outdoor play areas should be looked at, the research suggests that the decline happens early into a child's  school life. Could this be because there has been a shift towards a more school-ish view of child development? Emphasis moving towards classroom and away from children learning through free play. This could be supported with the decreases currently made to recess times around the world. What does this also mean to me as an Elementary PE teacher? Is the curriculum that I'm delivering only engaging students during our contact time? Should we not strive to inspire kids to play outside of school time? How do we do this? What are the prohibiting factors?