Importance of Quality After-School Recreational Programs (Research Paper Sample)

Importance of Quality After-School Recreational Programs
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Importance of Quality After-School Recreational Programs
Quality after-school programs provide adequate skills and motivate the participant to increase attention and engage in the active learning process. The after-school programs are common in the US with an estimated 10 million children participating actively in these activities. However, the prevalence and engagement levels of the participants largely depend on the perception of quality and usefulness of such programs to children and youths. It is apparent that physical activities in the normal school day hours are insufficient for children, a phenomenon that has contributed to poor motor capacity in today’s youth. It is important to have quality programs to keep the children and youths engaged in positive activities that enhance social interactions, physical fitness, leadership skills, and overall physical and mental health. Therefore, it is essential to have established after-school recreational programs that enable participants to acquire proficiency and mastery level of basic skills such as jumping and throwing, which further promote perceived competence of motor activities.
The insufficiency of traditional school-day physical education has increased the need for parents to seek after-school programs to support wholesome child development. Research suggests that children gain cognitive, relational, physical, and socio-emotional skills when they participate in organized after-school recreational programs (Kataoka & Vandell, 2013). Moreover, the quality of such programs largely depends on the experience of each participant thereby variability is expected among a group of youths engaging in the process. Furthermore, trained observers perform quality assessment of each afterschool program to determine its suitability using various assessment tools. Burrows, Keats, & Kolen (2014) claim that quality assessment ensures after-school settings meet the recommended guidelines to improve the physical activity of the young generation. More so, early childhood motor competence has been shown to influence adolescence and adult participation in physical exercises. Conversely, perceived competence affects the actual moto ability of an individual and may lead to reduced physical activities among the adults. In that case, quality after-school program promotes confidence, cardiovascular fitness, and strong motor proficiency in children, which is reflective of active exercises later in life.
High levels of population wide inactivity and adoption of unhealthy lifestyle have contributed to the rising levels of overweight and obese individual in the United States. This creates a need to develop programs that assist children in engaging in lifelong physical activities from a tender age. The proposed intervention methods need to have definitive measures of how to improve motor proficiency especially in school-aged children (Burrows, Keats, & Kolen, 2014). This can be achieved through an integrative process of subjecting children to both physical education classes and after-school recreational programs. However, the after-school programs should foster a conducive environment that allows equal participation and interaction of children to enhance their engagement. Studies have shown that negative staff-child relationship reduces the participation levels and subsequent mastery of physical activity skills. Additionally, Kataoka & Vandell (2013) documents that it is possible to predict th...