Healthy Child Development

Middle Childhood Matters

• More than one-quarter of children are not physically active enough to meet their developmental needs.
• For every $1 invested in physical activity, there is a long-term savings of $11 in health-care costs.
• One in every five children has emotional and/or behavioural problems severe enough to interfere with their development.
• User fees for recreation and cultural activities have increased steadily over the past decade, and as a result, the one million children living in poverty do not have equal access to these critical supports.
• Research clearly shows that successful schools must equally address children’s emotional and physical developmental needs to achieve the best academic outcomes.