Research on national study of physical literacy partly conducted by Nipissing professors

There’s a local angle to a national research project. Two Nipissing University professors have conducted part of the research on Canada’s First “State of the Nation” Report on Children’s Physical Literacy.

The project led by the Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group at the CHEO Research Institute shows that about two-thirds of Canadian children haven’t achieved an acceptable level of physical literacy. Nipissing researchers Dr. Barbi Law and Dr. Brenda Bruner contributed a paper on associations between teacher training and measures of physical literacy among Canadian 8 – to 12-year-old students.

Dr. Law told BayToday physical literacy looks at a lot of factors.

“It’s not just about are kids fit ? Do they have great motor skills and that’s part of it. Being physically literate also means that you’re motivated to be active and you’re confident to be active,” she says.

She says this is a national study so specific areas of the country weren’t the major part of the research.