Getting sedentary kids to stop playing video games and get more exercise can be a constant challenge for parents. But University of Georgia researchers found an innovative way of using an online game to motivate children to break away from the screen to play real-world sports and games.
UGA researchers created a digital fitness program that rewards young children for stepping away from the game to get real exercise such as basketball, soccer and other outdoor sports and games.
As part of the game “Virtual Fitness Buddy,” children wore Fitbits to track their physical activity and were rewarded with being able to play with a virtual dog. As more fitness goals were met, the dog became healthier, allowing the children to play with it longer and teach it more complex tricks, such as doing a doggy moonwalk.
The study involved about 300 children between the ages of 6 and 11 enrolled in after-school programs with the YMCA of Metropolitan Atlanta. Researchers reported that by the time they reach middle and high school, many children have already shown a sharp decline in physical activity. They theorize that reaching them before sedentary habits have formed is the best way to encourage more healthy activity later in life.
For the study, children were considered “low active” if they got little to no physical activity and below the threshold set for “high active” children — an average of 45 minutes of daily moderate to vigorous physical activity. For the sedentary children, Virtual Fitness Buddy led to strong improvements in activity levels, according to the study published earlier this year in the peer-reviewed journal NPJ Digital Medicine.
Three months after the program launched, the physical activity of “low active” children had increased to an average of 47 minutes per day, the study found. For kids who began the program rated as “high active,” their physical activity increased by five to seven minutes per day on average.
While the game was used for study purposes and is not commercially available, Dr. Sun Joo (Grace) Ahn said the research highlighted the importance of parental and caregiver support in helping kids use technology in positive ways. Customized goals, which could be increased little by little, was also key to helping kids meet their goals, she added.
While many active-play video games that require players to stand and move to play the game, such as Wii Sports, may seem like a good strategy to get game-loving kids moving, research suggests this style of game may not lead to much more exercise throughout the day than kids playing sedentary games.
“I don’t want to kids to be stuck in front of the screen, that’s the key difference,” said Ahn, lead author of the study and a professor in UGA’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. “So they go away to play basketball or do whatever in real life, free form play, then they come back and the virtual dog downloads the data to determine whether they’ve met their goal, gives them some feedback and social support, cheers them on, and might say, ‘Go away and give me 10 more minutes.’”
Parents played an integral role, receiving text messages about their child’s progress in real time. They were able to send their own words of encouragement to help their children meet fitness goals.
Credit: Chamberlain Smith
Credit: Chamberlain Smith
Ahn, also director of the Center for Advanced Computer-Human Ecosystems, was struck by how much children bonded with the virtual dogs. The kids could name the pet, choose a collar and other accessories for their dogs.
Experts agree video games are not all bad and can have some positive effects, like helping with problem-solving and enhancing creativity, but they say time spent playing video games needs to be managed by parents. At the same time, video games, including so-called active games, don’t offer the fresh air, sunshine and social interactions that come with outdoor play.
The balance between gaming and physical activity is usually way off. Only about 1 in 4 children ages 6 to 17 get the recommended hour or more of physical activity a day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Meanwhile, children between the ages of 8 to 17 spend an average of 1.5 to 2 hours daily playing video games, according to a study published in Pediatrics Review.
About 9 in 10 parents say their teens spend too much time playing video games, according to a C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health.
“What we find is at the core of why this was so successful is the social support kids are receiving,” said Ahn about the fitness game. “There are many dimensions to this. It may (be) that parents are providing encouragement and support for kids to exercise. It can be logistical support, driving kids where they need to be to participate and helping them sign up for an organized sport. Taking kids to a park and spending time with them. They are still young and developing so expecting them to do it on their own, throwing technology at kids really doesn’t work very well at all.”
Dr. LaKesha Davison Reddy, a local Kaiser Permanente pediatrician, said the study highlights the importance of having parents actively involved in helping their children limit online gaming and be more active. She also liked how the study tailored fitness goals for each child, noting some children may need time to build up to getting 60 minutes of exercise a day.
She recommends parents set expectations for daily exercise and limits on recreational screen time — two hours a day of recreational screen time is appropriate for school-aged children. She said it’s imperative for parents to help their children meet their goals and to also set a good example.
“So it’s very difficult for a parent to tell their child they are only allowed to be on their screen for two hours and go get an hour of exercise when the parent has some type of technology in their hand the entire day, like through dinner, morning, all the time,” Reddy said. “Not all kids are going to just spontaneously decide they need to do what their parents say when their parents aren’t doing it.”
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