How you can use PLAY to guide your kids to physical literacy

Physical Literacy Assessment for Youth, or PLAY, is a series of pencil-and-paper tools that can help determine the level of a child’s physical literacy.

Developed by Canadian Sport for Life, there is a downloadable booklet entitled “PLAYparent” designed for parents of school-aged children. It contains a questionnaire for parents to assess their children’s physical literacy, ways to engage kids in being active, and much more.

A few important points, excerpted from the PLAYparent booklet:

• “Ensure that your child has the opportunity to be physically active every day in their home and at school.”
• Does your child understand “movement terms, like skip, gallop, hop and jump?”
• “Activities should be ‘FUN first’ – prioritize your child’s enjoyment.”
• “Engage the child in activities that will benefit their weaker fitness components as much as possible.”
• “Talk to your child about the importance of being physically active in all environments.”
• “Offer choices that fit within your parenting philosophy (e.g. ‘Would you rather go to the pool or to the park today?’)”
• “If your child lacks a diverse set of movement skills, it’s important to introduce them to new activities (as soon as possible!) Make it fun, change the setting, and remember that repetition-based learning works.”