Pre-school children given exercise boost with new QuickChange animation
An energetic new digital animation designed to get pre-school children moving more has been launched across Cardiff and the Vale.
Following the success of QuickChange for school children aged four to six, a new version of the animation has been rolled out in nurseries and childminder settings for those aged two to four.
QuickChange was first developed by a group of local stakeholders within Podiatry services and the Public Health Team in Cardiff and Vale University Health Board. The first iteration of the animation won an award for improving public health practice to reduce health inequalities and has been praised for improving energy and mood levels in classrooms across Cardiff and Vale.
In June 2024, a wider group of stakeholders - including physiotherapists, Cardiff Met Primary Education Studies students and animation designers alongside the Public Health Team and Podiatry team - co-created suitable new exercises, a desirable theme, and designed a set of new interactive characters for the preschool version of QuickChange.
Cardiff and Vale UHB’s highly specialised children’s podiatrist, Dr Charlotte Holley, said the new animation features different animal characters that younger children can identify with.
She explained: “The exercises are milestone based, which means children might be able to master them, or they might be learning to do that, and that builds resilience whilst learning about their own bodies, which is excellent at this age.”
Multiple settings have already expressed an interest in incorporating QuickChange into their care provisions, highlighting how effortlessly the animation and animal characters can be embedded into everyday activities.
Kyle Davies, Operational Manager for Blue Door Out of School Care in Cardiff, said: “As staff, we incorporate QuickChange into our story times and song times. As we see the animals, we link that to the actions, and we encourage the children as we’re going and when we are out on walks as well.”
Lowri Kemp, one of the Cardiff Met Primary Education Studies students who worked on this project, has incorporated it seamlessly into her role as group leader at Little Cherubs Nursery. She acknowledged that the animation and the characters allow children to pick their own types of movement throughout their time at the daycare setting.
Each character was designed to allow children to be able to identify with them but also to use their imaginations and explorative interest whilst challenging themselves with the movements.
Sarah Sharpe runs her own childminding business, Poppins Daycare, in Barry. She expressed how easy QuickChange is to incorporate into her day, whether it is at the provision setting indoors or outside, but also when they are at the park, the beach or out on walks.
Alongside the digital animation, several different resources have been designed to help settings prompt QuickChange character movements. One of these resources is the ‘Explorer’ lanyard which aims to prompt children and remind them throughout the day to have a go and practice the different movements time and time again.
Emma Coleman who coordinates the Cardiff Healthy and Sustainable Preschools Scheme, praised QuickChange for making it easier for settings to embed movement and be able to evidence doing so when they attend to assess them.
The QuickChange animations can be found on Cardiff and Vale’s Keeping Me Well page and all the resources are free to use and can be found on our padlet.
If you want to know more about QuickChange, please get in touch: GoodFood.Movement@wales.nhs.uk