21st Century Learning & Development

There has recently been a push towards getting children to understand the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, whether that be a healthy diet, an adequate amount of physical activity or getting enough sleep. These are all aspects that contribute to the student’s physical development. If these needs are met, the student’s academic and personal well-being will improve, as well as other considerations such as bone and muscle growth and senses and skill development. Combined, these considerations make for a happy and healthy individual.

 When a child is involved in physical activity, multiple regions of their brain are stimulated. This increases the overall brain growth, nerve growth and development as well as an increase resistance to brain injury is built up (Martin, 2007).  Looking at the above remarks, it is evident that physical activity not only keeps a child’s fitness level high, and boosts their overall confidence, but it keeps their minds sharp giving them the ability to improve in their academics.

Physical activity needs to be paired with a healthy diet in order for the child to receive the full benefit of this kind of life style. One question society asks itself is whether or not children and teens today eat better than their parents did at their age. It is determined that in most cases, children are a product of their environment. If parents bring home processed and unhealthy foods, then it is most likely that their children will eat the same way. The same goes for when parents bring home healthy, wholefoods. Research provides compelling evidence that under nutrition – even in its milder forms – during any period of childhood can have detrimental effects on the cognitive development of the children and their later productivity as adults” (Smith, 1998).

It is imperative that we educate our students about indulging in a healthy diet. When we follow healthy eating regimes, it has been proven that we have a lower stress level (Middlebrooks & Audage, 2008).  The way we are affected by stress has a direct affect on our physical development. According to the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child there are 3 types of stress that children experience; (1) positive stress, stress resulting from adverse experiences that are short lived, (2) tolerable stress, which refers to adverse experiences that are more intense but relatively short lived, and (3) toxic stress, stress resulting from adverse experiences that may be sustained over a long period of time (Middlebrooks and Audage, 2008). Children need to experience stress in order to experience positive development. This form of stress is classified as positive or tolerable stress. When toxic stress is introduced to a child’s life, which stems from malnutrition or neglect for example, the child’s physical growth is stunted. Children need to be taught proper coping skills at a young age that teach them how to deal with stress in healthy way. If the above points can be addressed when a child is young, then the child can experience positive physical development, allowing them to flourish in their adult lives.