Funding outcome

Physical inactivity observed in many Canadian children has immediate and long-term health implications. Parents play a key role in children's physical activity. We developed the PLAYshop program, a novel, brief, theory-based, parent-focused physical literacy intervention, to address this major public health issue and to support families. Our previous work found improvements in parental outcomes to promote children's physical literacy development or their 'capacity for a physically active lifestyle'. This study will examine if the PLAYshop program increases preschool children's fundamental movement skills, physical activity, and co-participation in physical activity with their parents. We will enroll 130 preschoolers (3-5 years) and their parents. The intervention group will receive a virtual workshop, a goody bag of resources/equipment, access to an online toolkit, and booster emails. The control group will receive the PLAYshop program at a later date. Five fundamental movement skills (e.g., throw, hop) will be measured virtually via Zoom using established tools. Children's weekly physical activity and parent-child co-participation in physical activity will be measured objectively with motion sensors. We will use statistical tests to determine if these variables are larger at 2-months in the intervention group compared to the control group, taking into account baseline values. The PLAYshop program has the potential for meaningful benefits during COVID-19 and beyond. Study findings will be informative for our large network of knowledge users. Additionally, findings will inform future research, such as a larger trial that focuses on the maintenance of behaviour change.