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Completed

NCT Number: NCT05255250

PLAYshop: A Parent-focused Physical Literacy Intervention for Early Childhood

The PLAYshop program is a novel, brief, theory-based, parent-focused physical literacy intervention designed to address this major public health issue of childhood physical inactivity and to support families.

Primary Research Question: Does the PLAYshop program increase preschool-aged children's physical literacy, including fundamental movement skills and motivation and enjoyment, compared to controls?

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Key information

Conditions

Motor Activity Behavior Child Development Parent-Child Relations

Age range

3 year–5 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation

Edmonton, Alberta, T6W 1J9, Canada

About this study

The overall goal for the proposed study is to examine the efficacy of the PLAYshop program, a novel, brief, theory-based, parent-focused physical literacy intervention, on child- and family-specific outcomes.

Research Questions:

Primary: Does the PLAYshop program increase preschool-aged children's physical literacy, including fundamental movement skills and motivation and enjoyment, compared to controls? Secondary: Does the PLAYshop program increase preschool-aged children's physical activity and co-participation in physical activity with parents, compared to controls? Tertiary: 1) Does the PLAYshop program increase parents' capability, motivation, and opportunity to support preschool-aged children's physical literacy development, compared to controls? 2) What is the level of, and factors that influence, implementation at the family and program delivery level?

Hypotheses:

Increases in preschool-aged children's fundamental movement skills, motivation and enjoyment, physical activity, and parent-child co-participation in physical activity will be greater in the intervention group, compared to the control group. Additionally, increase in parents' capability, motivation, and opportunity to support preschool-aged children's physical literacy development will be greater in the intervention group, compared to the control group.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • Children aged 3-5 years and their parents
  • Living in non-rural areas of Alberta or British Columbia, Canada as defined by Statistics Canada

Exclusion criteria

  • Children diagnosed with developmental delay or disorder/condition that may affect gross motor development or limit their ability to be physically active.
  • Families with parents who do not comfortably speak or read English.
  • Families that do not have access to a smartphone/tablet with camera and microphone.
  • Families that have participated in prior PLAYshop pilot and feasibility trials.

Treatment and study plan

PLAYshop

Behavioral

The intervention includes: 1. Educational Training - the 60 min virtual workshop will be delivered by a trained facilitator. Parents will be introduced to physical literacy via education, group discussion, and active participation in fundamental movement skills (FMS) based activities with their child. 2. Distribution of Education Resources- Parents will be sent physical literacy and physical activity printed resources. 3. Material resources -parents will also be provided a bag of inexpensive active play equipment (e.g., ball, bean bag, balloons). 4. Provide Follow-up Support- After the workshop, participants will gain access to an app with an online toolkit including new active play ideas, tips, and equipment they can make at home for active play. Additionally, participants will receive four bi-weekly booster lessons that include key workshop messages, support and encouragement for parents, reflection and check-in questions, and new activities to try with their child.

Primary outcomes

  1. Change in children's physical literacy (fundamental movement skills)

    Time frame: Baseline and 2 month follow-up

    Children's fundamental movement skills, including two manipulative skills (i.e., overhand throw, underhand throw), two locomotor skills (i.e., horizontal jump, hop), and one balance/stability skill (i.e., one leg balance), will be assessed in a recorded virtual meeting. The skills are from the Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD) and the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-Second Edition (MABC-2).

  2. Change in children's physical literacy (motivation and enjoyment; parental report)

    Time frame: Baseline and 2 month follow-up

    Children's motivation and enjoyment will be assessed via a parental questionnaire that includes items from the Preschool Physical Literacy Assessment (Pre PLAy). This scale includes 4 items with values of 1-5; higher values mean more motivation and enjoyment. Citation: Cairney et al. (2018)

  3. Change in children's physical literacy (enjoyment; child report)

    Time frame: Baseline and 2 month follow-up

    Children's enjoyment will also be assessed via self-report using an adapted Five Degrees of Happiness Likert scale for children. This scale includes 1 item with a value of 1-5; a higher value means more enjoyment. Citation: Hall et al. (2016)

Secondary outcomes

  1. Change in children's physical activity

    Time frame: Baseline and 2 month follow-up

    Children's physical activity will be assessed with Actigraph wGT3X-BT accelerometers worn for 7 consecutive days. Validated cut-points for preschool-aged children will be used to classify each 15 second count into sedentary time or physical activity.

  2. Change in parent-child co-participation in physical activity (accelerometer)

    Time frame: Baseline and 2 month follow-up

    Parent-child co-participation in physical activity will be assessed with Actigraph wGT3X-BT accelerometers worn for 7 consecutive days by children and designated parents. Validated cut-points for preschool-aged children and adults will be used to classify each 15 second count into sedentary time or physical activity. The Bluetooth proximity detection feature on the accelerometer will be enabled to determine the presence (e.g., same room in a house, at the park together) or absence of close proximity between two accelerometers.

  3. Change in parent-child co-participation in physical activity (questionnaire)

    Time frame: Baseline and 2 month follow-up

    Parent-child co-participation in physical activity will also be assessed with a parental questionnaire. This scale includes 4 items with values of 1-5; higher values mean more co-participation in PA. Citation: Mâsse et al., 2020

  4. Change in parental physical activity modelling

    Time frame: Baseline and 2 month follow-up

    Parental physical activity modelling will be assess via a parental questionnaire. This scale includes 3 items with values of 1-4: higher values mean higher modelling. Citation: Davison et al., 2011

Other outcomes

  1. Change in parents' capability to support preschool-aged children's physical literacy development

    Time frame: Baseline (all), immediately after workshop, approximately 1-2 weeks after baseline (intervention), one week after baseline (control), 2-month follow-up (all)

    Parental capability (i.e., knowledge), will be assessed via a parental questionnaire. This scale includes 9 items with values of 1-5; higher values mean more capability.

  2. Change in parents' motivation to support preschool-aged children's physical literacy development

    Time frame: Baseline (all), immediately after workshop, approximately 1-2 weeks after baseline (intervention), one week after baseline (control), 2-month follow-up (all)

    Parental motivation (i.e., confidence (11 items), beliefs (4 items), outcome expectations (3 items), intentions (2 items), perceived behavioural control (4 items)) will be assessed via a parental questionnaire. Citation for beliefs and outcome expectations: Heitzler et al., 2006. Items have values of 1-5; higher values mean more parental motivation.

  3. Change in parents' opportunity to support preschool-aged children's physical literacy development

    Time frame: Baseline (all), immediately after workshop, approximately 1-2 weeks after baseline (intervention), one week after baseline (control), 2-month follow-up (all)

    Parental opportunity (e.g., perceived availability of resources (1 item), perceived barriers (5 items)) will be assessed via a parental questionnaire. Items have values of 1-5; higher values mean less parental opportunity. Citation for perceived barriers: Heitzler et al., 2006

  4. Implementation: satisfaction and perceived usefulness (questionnaire)

    Time frame: Intervention group: Immediately after the workshop

    Satisfaction and perceived usefulness of the intervention will be assessed via a parental questionnaire in the intervention group only. This scale includes 3 items with values of 1-5; higher values mean more satisfaction and perceived usefulness.

  5. Implementation: satisfaction and perceived usefulness (parental interview)

    Time frame: Intervention group: 2-month follow-up

    Satisfaction and perceived usefulness of the intervention will also be explored via brief semi-structured interviews with parents from the intervention group.

  6. Implementation: facilitators and barriers (parental interview)

    Time frame: Intervention group: 2-month follow-up

    Implementation facilitators and barriers will be explored via brief semi-structured interviews with parents from the intervention group.

  7. Implementation: facilitators and barriers (workshop leader interview)

    Time frame: At study completion, approximately 1 year from first workshop.

    Implementation facilitators and barriers will be explored via brief semi-structured interviews with workshop leaders.

  8. Implementation: dose (parental interview)

    Time frame: Intervention group: 2-month follow-up

    The dose of the intervention will be explored via brief semi-structured interviews with parents from the intervention group.

  9. Implementation: dose (app check-in questions)

    Time frame: Intervention group: Bi-weekly after workshop (i.e., 1, 3, 5, and 7 weeks)

    The dose of the intervention will be assessed via check-in questions as part of the booster lessons in the intervention group.

  10. Implementation: dose (app usage data)

    Time frame: Intervention group: 2-month follow-up

    The dose of the intervention will be assessed via tracking of app usage in the intervention group.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

University of Alberta

Other

Collaborators

  • University of Victoria
  • Women and Children's Health Research Institute, Canada

Registry information

Important dates

Study start
2022
Primary completion
2023
Study completion
2023
First posted
Feb 24, 2022
Registry last updated
Dec 11, 2024

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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