The Power of positive movement experiences in childhood: Department of Education Victoria
This week, Exercise Physiologist Jas was a guest speaker for the Department of Education, speaking about engagement of exercise for primary school aged children in Melbourne. We wanted to share some of her insight on the topic.
Picture a child you've probably met at some point. Recess is about to start, and most of the class sprints straight for the oval. But one child hangs back near the classroom, unsure where to go.
It's not because they don't want to play. It's because last time they tried to join the game, they missed every catch, other kids laughed, and they decided it wasn't worth trying again.
That moment — that quiet decision to opt out — is often where the work of an Exercise Physiologist begins. By the time a child like this walks through the door, it's rarely just about a gap in motor skills. It's about the fact that they've already learned that avoiding movement avoids further embarrassment. Left unaddressed, that belief can shape a child's relationship with physical activity well into adolescence and adulthood.
When would a child see an EP?
This generally falls into three areas:
A diagnosed disability or developmental condition, where strength, coordination, or physical confidence is affecting a child's participation at school, home, or socially.
Signs of motor delay or movement difficulty, even without a formal diagnosis — the child who avoids the playground, fatigues faster than peers, has poor balance, or seems generally hesitant compared to other kids their age.
Weight or metabolic health concerns, where the goal is building a positive relationship with movement early, to reduce the risk of compounding health problems later in life.
What does a session actually look like?
Sessions are movement-based, but exercise prescription for kids doesn't mean putting a child in a gym. It means finding any form of movement that's fun and builds a genuinely positive association with physical activity.
Jas has used a home laser tag kit to get a child who was adamant he wasn't going to do any form of exercise running around an oval for nearly an hour. Obstacle courses are used to sneak in single-leg balance and coordination work, and trampolines to build lower limb strength. In other cases, sessions are more structured: strength and conditioning programs, or movement-skills sessions working on jumping, catching, hopping, and skipping — always in a way where the child doesn't feel like there's a standard they have to meet. The focus, one-on-one, is building confidence.
Working as part of a bigger picture
Children's development is rarely one professional's job alone. An EP typically focuses on physical capacity — strength, endurance, gross motor skills, cardiovascular fitness, and overall confidence with movement — while other allied health professionals, such as Occupational Therapists, focus on how a child engages with daily tasks like self-care, play, and classroom participation.
Take a child struggling with handwriting. On the surface, that looks like a fine motor skills issue. But if that child has poor core stability or low postural endurance and can't physically sit upright long enough to complete the task, building that physical foundation first makes all the difference to the outcome. It's a good example of why a joined-up, multidisciplinary approach to a child's care usually gets better results than any one discipline working in isolation.
Gross motor development and the avoidance cycle
Gross motor skills — running, hopping, jumping, skipping, throwing, catching, kicking, climbing, balancing — aren't just playground skills. Research shows they have a real impact on a child's ability to participate in school, extracurriculars, sport, and everyday outings involving movement.
There's a well-documented cycle worth noting here: children with lower motor competence tend to become more avoidant of physical activity, because it's harder, less rewarding, and can carry an emotional cost. That avoidance means fewer opportunities to practise — and fewer opportunities to practise means the skills gap widens instead of closing, which reinforces the avoidance. It's a negative spiral that, left unaddressed, can flow from childhood into adolescence and show up later in life as reduced exercise participation, weight gain, cardiometabolic conditions, low social participation, and poor self-esteem.
Why this matters
Every positive movement experience counts. Whether it's a game of laser tag, an obstacle course, or the right support at the right time, the goal is the same: helping children build confidence, competence, and a lifelong positive relationship with movement — before avoidance has the chance to take hold.
If this sounds like it could apply to your child, the team at Milestone Rehab & Performance is here to help.