Early Childhood | Physical Activity Guidelines
The Physical Activity Guidelines recognise the role physical activity plays to support healthy growth and development. The Guidelines also provide parents and carers with recommendations about how much time children should spend engaged in active play, sedentry behaviour and screen time.
Source: Health and Community Services Workforce Council - PSCQ InTheLoop: Winter 2010
 Active playFor children under 5 years, active play is the best form of physical activity. Active play includes: 
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active travel (such as walking or riding to a place rather than driving) and;
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everyday active tasks.
The Get Up and Grow resources developed by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing provide information and ideas about active play including:  Active play and children with disabilities
Children of all abilities benefit from physical activity and play.
Parents - It is important to understand your child's disability including your child's capabilities and limitations. This will help you to learn how best to engage with your child through active play and also identify what types of active play are best to encourage your child to participate in.
Early Childhood Educators - It is important to talk with parents/carers to find out the details of their child's disability and how it affects the childs everyday functions and abilities. Discuss the child's interests, dislikes and capabilities as well as what the parents/carers' goals are for the child. Talking to parents will enable you as educators to understand the capabilities and limitations of children with a disability and help you to modify activities accordingly.
More information can be found on the GAGC disability page.
Children from all cultures
The Gold Coast is home to people from many countries. This provides a great opportunity for our children to learn about a variety of cultures. Different cultures have different values, beliefs and customs that need to be respected. We can show appropriate respect to cultures and customs by:
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asking parents or community leaders to share their culture including traditional toys, costumes, dances and play based activities,
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incorporating traditions and languages into games if possible and;
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Early Childhood Quicklinks:
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