Over-Scheduled Is Over-Stated: After-School Activities Are Good for Kids

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Bridgman
Keyword(s):  
After School ◽  
School Activities ◽  
Good For ◽  
After School Activities

scholarly journals SCHOOL-AGE CARE, AN IDEOLOGICAL CONTRADICTION

2012 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-51
Author(s):  
Peter Karlsudd
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Disability ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
After School ◽  
School Age ◽  
Intellectually Disabled ◽  
School Activities ◽  
After School Activities ◽  
The One ◽  
Compulsory Schools ◽  
Care System

In the doctoral dissertation "Children with intellectual disability in the integrated school-age care system" the extent and goal fulfilment of after-school recreation centre activities in 19 Swedish municipalities were studied. The study gave high marks to these centres for integrating intellectually disabled children into their activities. The empirics of the dissertation revealed, however, a number of warning signals, which indicated an increase in offering “special solutions” to these children. This article will contain a comparison between the study from 1999 and the one carried out in the spring of 2011. The two studies have followed the same question construction in order to achieve a comparison over time. The aim of study, focusing on children received into schools for the intellectually disabled was to evaluate to what extent integrated activities occurred and to look for factors with a positive impact on the quality of those after-school activities which gathered children from these and compulsory schools in the same groups. On the basis of the comparison made between the 12 years that have passed from the earlier to the later study, it must be regretfully concluded that segregated activities have gained a firm hold on the activities of after-school recreation care centres. Key words: after-school activities, inclusion, integrated, intellectual disability, school-age care system.

Young Children’s After-School Activities—There’s More to It Than Screen Time: A Cross-Sectional Study of Young Primary School Children

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lina Engelen ◽  
Anita C Bundy ◽  
Adrian Bauman ◽  
Geraldine Naughton ◽  
Shirley Wyver ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Primary School ◽  
Real Time ◽  
School Children ◽  
Screen Time ◽  
Primary School Children ◽  
After School ◽  
Physically Active ◽  
School Activities ◽  
After School Activities ◽  
Sedentary Activities

Background:Children can spend substantial amounts of leisure time in sedentary activities, dominated by TV/screen time. However, objective real-time measurement of activities after school among young school children is seldom described.Methods:School children (n = 246, 5−7 years old, mean 6.0) and their parents were recruited by random selection from 14 schools across Sydney, Australia. Parents used a real-time objective measure (Experience Sampling Method, ESM) to record children’s activities and whether they were indoors or outdoors at 3 random times each day after school. Data were collected across 4 weekdays in 1 week and then, 13 weeks later, another 4 weekdays in 1 week.Results:Results were based on 2940 responses from 214 childparent dyads showed that 25% of behavior involved physical activity, 51% was spent in sedentary activities, and 22% was TV/ screen time. Most instances (81%) occurred indoors.Conclusion:Despite a high proportion of TV/screen time, children were also engaged in a range of other sedentary and physically active pursuits after school. Hence TV/screen time is not a suitable proxy for all sedentary behavior, and it is important to gather information on other non–screen-based sedentary and physically active behaviors. Future research is warranted to further investigate after-school activities in young primary school children.

Designing Culturally Responsive Organized After-School Activities

2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra D. Simpkins ◽  
Nathaniel R. Riggs ◽  
Bic Ngo ◽  
Andrea Vest Ettekal ◽  
Dina Okamoto
Keyword(s):  
Youth Development ◽  
Culturally Responsive ◽  
Racial Diversity ◽  
School Funding ◽  
The United States ◽  
After School ◽  
Organized Activities ◽  
Developmental Needs ◽  
School Activities ◽  
After School Activities

Organized after-school activities promote positive youth development across a range of outcomes. To be most effective, organized activities need to meet high-quality standards. The eight features of quality developed by the National Research Council’s Committee on Community-Level Programs for Youth have helped guide the field in this regard. However, these standards have largely been defined in terms of universal developmental needs, and do not adequately speak to the growing ethnic and racial diversity within the United States, which is further complicated by issues of power and social class differences. Given U.S. population shifts and after-school funding priorities, the time has come to consider new ways to provide organized after-school activities that are responsive to youth’s culture and everyday lives. The goal of this article is to explore how we can help ensure that after-school activities are culturally responsive and address the specific needs of the youth who participate in these activities. Based on theory and empirical evidence, we provide proposed practices of cultural responsiveness for each of the eight features of quality for program structure and staff. The article concludes with future directions for research and strategies to implement culturally responsive practices and harness resources.

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