Don’t Raise A Couch Potato!

One of the best approaches is to be active yourself. Children tend to model the behaviors of those closest to them. When a child sees an influential adult putting activity as a priority in their life, they receive the message that it is important. One way to apply this idea is to invite your child to do activities with you. If you plan on walking the dog, planting flowers or collecting sticks in the yard, invite your child. While you are engaged in the activity, model for them the enjoyable aspects of the task. Sing while you are doing yard work, skip during your walk or just have a good conversation with your child during the activities. Plant the seed that activity can be fun and not a chore.

Encourage a child to engage their imagination and be part of creating new activities. An activity that can be done inside or outside is making an obstacle course. Help them find household materials to create tunnels, low jumps and fancy footwork. Have them invite their friends over and have a version of the Olympics. Each child could be responsible to develop one event and give out gold medals to all participants at the end. A child's social group can be a strong influence and having them all involved in a healthy activity can increase the likelihood of future events.

During activities with your child, be sure to model positive self-talk. Model how you can be your own cheerleader by verbalizing how you pump yourself up. Be sure to continue with the positive self-talk when problems arise. Positive self-talk can pull from past successful experiences. Last week I rode my bike down the driveway so I know I can balance for a little while. Statements like this pull from skills you have used in other situations (I didn't know how to jump a rope when I first started, but I kept trying and can do it now. I think I can learn to skate too.) Also, use energizing talk (You can do it. Keep up the good work).

OH Member Angela suggests using the Wii as a way to exercise with your children. The Wii is an excellent opportunity to use self-talk and serve as your child's cheerleader. The Wii is also constructed well to help your child set realistic goals, break those goals into smaller steps, overcome obstacles, and be successful. If an overall goal is to build stamina, a smaller goal may be hula-hooping for 30 seconds longer than the time before. The small successes can lead to more confidence, hope, and motivation.

Angela has some creative ideas she uses to engage her seven children. She suggests using a bed sheet to play parachute, building a tee-pee with sticks, and kicking open a brown paper sack. A scavenger hunt can also be a creative way to motivate activity. Create a list of items (e.g. something red, a white rock, a shiny penny, and two kinds of flowers) and encourage the children to work quickly to retrieve them. The age-old childrens games of tag, hide-and-go-seek and freeze are games you can plan without needing any planning or materials.

Teenagers especially like to play Frisbee golf. You can set-up several goals (like the holes in golf) and challenge them to throw the Frisbee in the goal. Several public parks now have this game already constructed. Again, involving a teenager's peer group will make a strong impact. Dancing is another fun-loving activity. Gather the family around, have the children take turns picking the music, and take turns dancing in the middle of the circle. It can be your family's version of a dance-off.

In all of these activities, help your child motivate himself/herself, have good sportsmanship and avoid competition. If you have more than one child, consider creating a group goal that promotes teamwork. An example of such a goal would be challenging them to balance a ball between the two of them, only holding onto it by pushing their palms together. We want everyone to enjoy the activity and support one another.

Make activity fun. Provide encouragement. Involve friends. Model healthy behavior. You can be a major influence on your child's activity level. Enjoy the opportunity!

Dara Delancy, Psy.D. is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist specializing in the treatment of children, adolescents and their families.