Sports Health Article

Sports

Games and individual activities involving physical skills.

A child will have many opportunities to participate in sports throughout his or her developing years and into adolescence. The level of a child's participation in sports, how he or she performs, or whether he or she enjoys playing is greatly influenced by adults' attitudes toward the physical and emotional aspects of the activity.

Infancy

The amount of athletic activity that an infant is capable of participating in is limited. Still, many parents worry about their child's motor skill development and how they can help develop these skills. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) advises parents that normal play with adults is more than enough physical stimulus to encourage normal development of motor skills. In years of research, no one has produced any evidence that increased stimulation of infants increases development of motor skills in later years.

Swimming is perhaps the only sport infants are really able to participate in. While infants instinctively hold their breath when immersed in water, pediatricians warn that they also swallow water, which can produce hazardous side effects. The AAP advises that infants should not participate in swimming activities until they are at least four months old.

Toddlerhood and preschool

Children at this stage of development are naturally curious and exploratory, leading them to develop independence skills such as walking and talking. These should be encouraged by adults, as should frequent interaction with other children their own age. Athletic activity at this age should be free-form and spontaneous, with adult interference or direction held to a minimum. The AAP suggests that adult intervention—such as teaching a child to throw and catch a baseball—has little effect on later motor development, and they warn that the repetition of such practicing will often stifle the natural urge to play creatively. It has also been shown that until the ages of 5-7, young children's vision is not sufficiently developed to follow objects that are moving quickly through their line of sight, such as thrown balls.

Appropriate athletic activities for children of this age are dance, rudimentary gymnastics (tumbling), and swimming. Of course, free-form play with peers is probably most important, both for its socializing effect and for the creative expression it offers.