The Differences in Physical Activity Levels in Preschool Children During Free Play Recess and Structured Play Recess

Background/objective: Physical activity (PA) is important in reducing childhood obesity, yet a majority of children are not meeting PA guidelines. Schools have been identified as a place to promote childhood PA. The purpose of this study was to determine the best type of physically active recess period to increase preschool-aged children's PA.

Methods: PA was measured via accelerometers in preschool-aged children ( = 29) during three, 30-min recess conditions (control; structured play; free play) on separate school days. Tertile splits were performed based on PA during the condition and children were divided into three groups: highly, moderately and least active.

Results: For the aggregated sample, children were more ( ≤ 0.001) active during the (1282 ± 662 counts min) and (1416 ± 448 counts min) recess versus the condition (570 ± 460 counts min) and activity was not different between the and conditions. However, children who were the most active during (1970 ± 647 counts·min) decreased ( ≤ 0.05) activity during (1462 ± 535 counts·min), whereas children who were moderately active (1031 ± 112 counts·min) or the least (530 ± 239 counts·min) active during increased activity during (1383 ± 345 counts·min moderately active, 1313 ± 413 counts·min least active).

Conclusion: Providing a physically-active recess period will contribute to preschool-aged children meeting the recommended PA guidelines; however, different children may respond in a different way based upon the structure of the recess period.