When it comes to happy and healthy kids, the role of physical activity cannot be understated. Consistent physical activity doesn’t just benefit your child’s overall physical health but has meaningful benefits to their mental health and social capabilities.
In this blog, we’ll be taking a look at the various benefits that physical activity offers growing children and how you can help foster an active lifestyle for them with Plum Play.
Physical & Mental Benefits of Activity for Kids
Perhaps one of the most important lessons any child (or person, for that matter) can learn is how physical activity directly correlates to many physical and mental health benefits.
While we’ve known for a long time that physical activity leads to physical health, our understanding of the mental health benefits has evolved substantially over the past century.
Though there was a general understanding that physical activity appeared to have positive impacts on someone’s mental state, scientific research into the link between the two ballooned in the 20th century.
Regular activity improves a child’s overall physical and mental well-being in three key ways:
- It improves their overall physical health
- It better supports their mental health, mental well-being, and emotional well-being
- It fosters various social benefits for young kids
Improving Physical Health
One of the clearest benefits that come from kids living an active lifestyle is how it improves their physical health.
Regular activity goes a long way in improving things such as:
- Cardiovascular and aerobic health
- Bone and muscle strength and development, both of which are essential for growing kids
- Flexibility
- Weight management
- Motor skills and coordination
- Lowers the risk of issues such as heart disease or type 2 diabetes
Physical activity is also of great benefit to a child’s sleep.
The best sleep often comes when we’ve managed to put in a good balance of physical and mental effort for the day, making it easier for our brains and bodies to relax and switch off.
For young children especially, they need a good amount of physical activity every day. As a parent, you undoubtedly appreciate how much energy your kids tend to have – sometimes it can seem like they have a bottomless supply of it.
For children between the ages of 1 and 5, you want to encourage them to be physically active for at least three hours each day.
Supporting Mental Well-Being
Kids who stay active also benefit on a mental and emotional level. Given the intrinsic relationship between physical activity and mental health, various positives come from having an active childhood. These include:
- Improved cognition, including better concentration, memory, and the ability to absorb and retain information.
- Physical activity helps stimulate the growth of brain cells and neural connections, which assists in learning.
- Greater mental resilience in times of stress and anxiety.
Along with these mental factors, physical activity also helps with emotional factors. Because a better-balanced mental state facilitates better emotional regulation.
Kids’ moods can be improved through the release of endorphins during physical activity, which boosts mood and helps build resilience against conditions like depression. Self-esteem is often improved and emotional regulation improves.
Social Benefits
Physical activity, especially when undertaken with other kids, can bring about a number of social benefits, too. By engaging in group activities with other kids, it will help your children develop their social skills.
Physical activity can foster team building and organically encourage cooperation. It presents an opportunity for your children to interact with other kids, problem-solve and compromise, and learn the benefits that come from working with others towards common goals.
Regular socialising can help bring them out of their shell, develop essential communication skills, and help them learn how to emotionally regulate. Healthy competition can also teach them to not take losses seriously. These combined benefits also lessen the likelihood that your child will engage in antisocial behaviour.
How Plum Play Can Help
At Plum Play, we’re all about encouraging play and physical activity in young ones. Since our beginnings, we’ve been focused on manufacturing and selling products that spark children’s imaginations and get them moving and socialising.
Our array of products includes trampolines, swings and slides, climbing frames and even backyard water play parks. We focus on creating experiences that help children develop their motor skills, cognitive problem-solving abilities, and physical well-being.
Given young kids need to be active for several hours each day, the key to keeping them active is through making physical activity fun. That’s why our products take a fun first approach. If your kids are enjoying themselves, then they’ll happily play and be active for hours.
We’re confident our products will open the door to your children being more physically active and engaged in play.
Be sure to check out our range of products to see what’s possible, view our FAQs for answers to the most common questions regarding our range, and get in touch if you have any questions or concerns not covered in the FAQs. We’re happy to help!