ECE settings are one of the places to help young children build a foundation for healthy living. High-quality ECE programming can have a positive impact on a child’s social-emotional wellbeing, educational achievement, health, and socioeconomic outcomes later in life. Promoting physical activity and encouraging healthy behaviors support children during early development and later in life. Early childhood is a critical time for obesity prevention because it’s a phase where children begin to develop taste preferences, learn to walk and play, and copy the behaviors they see.
In working together to ensure that these opportunities for quality training exist, we provide children with a greater likelihood to be at a healthy weight, prevent chronic diseases, and improve academic success and classroom behaviors.