Expert insights: What we learned about keeping kids active during the pandemic

Organized play and sporting opportunities for children have finally started to resume after having just passed the two-year mark of the pandemic. As parents know too well, the pandemic led to extended closures of settings that previously supported children's play and sport, like parks, community centres and sport facilities. Our team of researchers in the Child Health and Physical Activity Lab at Western University wanted to understand COVID-19's impact on children's activity levels. Via social media and sports organizations, we recruited Ontario parents and their children (under 12 years), to hear their perspectives in interviews. We also wanted to know parents' plans for returning their children to physical activities or sport when COVID-19 cases were still present in the community, or if they were planning to wait until after the pandemic had ended. We conducted interviews in December 2020 and January 2021 to learn more. Eleven parents who participated were from urban communities across Ontario and one was from a rural community.