This post relates to Senate Bill 17
The health of the nation's future depends on the health of its newest generations. Childhood obesity is a serious personal and public health concern with potentially devastating consequences. There appears to be a clear pathway to adult obesity and the disease and debility associated with it through the earlier and earlier onset of childhood obesity. One of the best ways to stop or even reverse excessive weight in children is to improve diet and exercise. University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension is helping to do just that with innovative programs throughout the Commonwealth.
LEAP for Good Health – Literacy, Eating and Activity for Preschoolers (LEAP) is an Extension program that has been utilized in both Marshall and Johnson counties. This program has been well received by the majority of participants, site staff, and families. The program consists of reading stories with food and activity themes and then following up with a related hands-on activity. Not only do the children hear and learn about nutrition and exercise in an entertaining story format, but they also get to act out things they learned in the story such as eating a snack with fruits and vegetables or doing some related physical activity. The LEAP program stresses the importance of both healthy eating and physical activity by engaging children’s minds and bodies.
In Marshall County the program has been used to work with 3 and 4 year old students enrolled in Head Start. The program received rave reviews during a recent self-assessment performed by the Head Start staff. One important benefit of the LEAP program provided by Cooperative Extension has been to increase awareness about the nutritional and physical activity needs of young children. As a result of this increased awareness, an important deficiency was discovered that many classroom sites had inadequate playground facilities designed for young children.
In Johnson County, Early Childcare and Teacher Cadets at Johnson Central High School were trained by University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service to use the LEAP program. 16 Teens and 200 pre-school children have participated in 2008.
Here are a number of quotes:
- “The children couldn’t wait to eat fruits and veggies for snacks after the program.” Thelma Crider, TLC Daycare
- “The children love the teens reading the stories.” Tama Ramey, W.R. Castle Resource Center
- “The teens enjoy having real life experience in teaching.” Neva Rowland, Family and Consumer Sciences instructor at Johnson Central High School
In Leslie County, Extension Service collaborated with others to form the Leslie County Youth Wellness program which focuses on increasing physical activity and healthy eating. 4th and 5th grade students are shown the importance of healthy eating and physical activity by discussing how it can affect them today and later in life.
Here are some highlights of the program:
- Life skills test scores increased at two elementary schools with one of the schools in the top 20 in the state
- 120 4th and 5th grade students in the county participated
- Teachers in the schools stated that the lessons provided by Extension and FCS contributed to the increase in test scores
- The teachers reinforced what was taught after the program was completed
Engaging young children to improve diet and exercise is an important step towards the treatment and prevention of obesity. The issue of childhood obesity and lack of physical activity is an important issue. Children today stay inside to watch TV, play videogames and work on the computer which can keep kids from being active. A lack of parental oversight may lead to children eating too many snacks and junk food. This points to the importance of teaching kids how to make healthy nutritional choices.
