Starting in September, the Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research group (HALO) is looking for community partners to assist with an ongoing project entitled “Putting Physical Literacy within REACH (Recreation, Education, Allied-Health, Coaching, Healthcare).” The goal of the project is to develop accurate and easy-to-use physical literacy screening tasks that can be used by REACH leaders. The group is looking for community leaders who would be willing to learn the screening tasks and then administer the screening tasks to at least 10 children, 8 to 12 years of age.
The time required to review the screening task training materials will be approximately 1 hour, depending on the expertise and experience of each leader. The training materials will be provided by the research staff free of charge. The research staff will also provide each leader with additional support as required to ensure that they are able to learn and implement the tasks with children 8 to 12 years of age.
There are two options for screening the physical literacy among children, who are 8 to 12 years of age. Both options require minimal equipment (stop-watch, 1 question), can be completed in less than 2 minutes and are suitable for use in very limited space. Option A: Left foot balance test and the question “How active are you?” or option B: Left foot balance test and the wall sit. Each leader may choose which option best suits his or her needs.
After administering the screening tasks to at least 10 children, each leader would be asked to provide his/her feedback via a short, one page questionnaire.
If you are interested in helping to evaluate these new physical literacy screening tasks, please contact Stacey Alpous (aalpous@cheo.on.ca or 613-737-7600 ext. 4003). Stacey would be happy to discuss the details with you and answer any questions or concerns.
