--- title: Young Kids Aren’t Getting Enough Exercise, Study Says description: A new study by researchers from the University of Washington has found that preschoolers are not getting enough exercise. canonical: https://time.com/3882241/preschoolers-young-children-exercise-research-motor-development/ author: Helen Regan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-18T08:50:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T07:24:22.613Z article:section: Science og:title: Young Kids Aren’t Getting Enough Exercise, Study Says og:description: On a typical day preschoolers only got 30 minutes of outside play. og:url: https://time.com/3882241/preschoolers-young-children-exercise-research-motor-development/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Young Kids Aren’t Getting Enough Exercise, Study Says twitter:description: On a typical day preschoolers only got 30 minutes of outside play. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Preschoolers Aren’t Getting Enough Exercise, Study Says by [Helen Regan](https://time.com/author/helen-regan/) ## Helen Regan May 18, 2015 8:50 AM UTC by [Helen Regan](https://time.com/author/helen-regan/) ## Helen Regan May 18, 2015 8:50 AM UTC Even very young children in the U.S. are not active enough, says a new study_._ Preschoolers only get about 48 minutes of exercise on average each day, according to a paper by the University of Washington and[ published](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/05/18/preschoolers-not-exercising/27396311/) in the journal _Pediatrics_. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) [recommends ](http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/everyone/guidelines/children.html)kids get at least one hour of daily physical activity. After documenting children’s daily activities in 10 preschools in the Seattle area over a period of 50 days, researchers found that they were only exercising 12% of the time. The rest of their day was spent napping (29%), eating or generally being inactive. On average, the children were outside for just more than half an hour a day, the study found. “It’s just not enough,” Pooja Tandon, lead author of the study and assistant professor at the University of Washington, told _USA Today._ Getting plenty of exercise at a young age, she said, was essential for a child’s development and for preventing obesity, which has risen dramatically over the past 30 years. [According ](http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/obesity/facts.htm)to the CDC, nearly 18% of children ages six to 11 are obese, compared to 7% in 1980. To get kids more active, some health experts advocate combining academic activities in the classroom with exercise. Debbie Chang, vice president of Nemours Children’s Health System in Delaware, says even reading a book, such as _The Wheels on the Bus,_ can become part of a child’s daily exercise as they can get up and moving by acting out the scenes. \[[_USA Today_](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/05/18/preschoolers-not-exercising/27396311/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3882241/preschoolers-young-children-exercise-research-motor-development/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3882241/preschoolers-young-children-exercise-research-motor-development/"},"headline":"Preschoolers Aren’t Getting Enough Exercise, Study Says","datePublished":"2015-05-18T08:50:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T07:24:22.613Z","description":"Plenty of exercise is essential for a child's development and to prevent obesity","url":"https://time.com/3882241/preschoolers-young-children-exercise-research-motor-development/","keywords":["Research","Children","Exercise","Education","Obesity","learning"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Helen Regan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/helen-regan/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3882241/preschoolers-young-children-exercise-research-motor-development/","name":"Preschoolers Aren’t Getting Enough Exercise, Study Says"}}]}] ```