Canadian children and youth's movement and play during the pandemic

Early COVID-19 restrictions made leaving the house more challenging -- which meant that Canadian kids were moving less, sleeping more, and spending more time on their phones and tablets. This animated video highlights findings from a large national study on how children and youth's movement and play behaviours changed in response the COVID-19 pandemic and related public health restrictions. During the initial wave of COVID-19, less than 3% of kids were meeting the 24-hour movement guidelines (and only 1.5% of kids living with disabilities). We know that movement and play are crucial to healthy child development. Children and youth who meet movement and play recommendations have better physical and mental health compared with their less active peers. This video suggests that there were immediate collateral consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on child health and provides recommendations to help kids and their families to preserve and promote health across COVID-19 outbreak. This animated video was created to align with the IHDCYH's strategic research priority 1i, Developmental Origins of Health and Disease through the Lifespan. The COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions have changed the way that children and youth move and play. Several adult conditions (e.g., cardiometabolic diseases) have known childhood antecedents. There are windows of opportunity to engage in healthy behaviours during childhood and adolescence and build lifelong health-promoting habits. This video praises families for their resiliency during the pandemic. We believe this video informs strategies to mitigate the collateral consequences that the pandemic has had on children and youth health.