Project Play: Early Positive Experiences — What Is Age Appropriate?
This spring, the Sports & Society Program launched the Aspen Institute’s Project Play, a thought leadership exercise that aims to help stakeholders — from parents to sport leaders to mayors — build healthy communities through sport activity that meets the needs of all children. Many kids are sedentary, while others quit sports prematurely from burnout, overuse, injuries, or lack of fun. Between the ages of nine and 15, physical activity rates among American children decline 75 percent, a higher rate than in Europe.
This event will focus on the prospects of introducing developmentally appropriate play throughout our sport system. It is the first of four roundtables over the next seven months that will consider the question of how to grow the quality and quantity of community coaches, given the critical role that coaches play in getting and keeping kids engaged in sports.
The roundtable is being supported by Nike through its engagement with Designed to Move, a global effort to end the epidemic of physical inactivity.