The young and the restless

THEY may drive their parents and teachers up the wall, but restless children are burning more energy and avoiding unhealthy weight gain than their peers who sit still.

A world-first Victorian study has found children who constantly wriggle while undertaking sedentary activities such as colouring in or watching TV burn off an extra 3kg over the course of a year while changing position.

Deakin University researchers found a huge difference in the fidgeting habits of children, with some swapping between sitting, standing, kneeling and lying up to 53 times in just 65 minutes, although others have only 11 “posture transitions” in the same time.

While the energy expended during each wriggle may be tiny, lead researcher Dr Katherine Downing said the flowon impacts could help prevent unhealthy weight gain.

“These fidgeting changes in posture do actually have a significant impact on energy expenditure so perhaps we shouldn’t be stopping those young kids from fidgeting so much,” she said.

“I am a little bit worried about the impact on teachers — but is not so much about the fidgeting, but encouraging teachers to get children up and moving more.”

The study of 40 children aged four to six saw each asked to complete sedentary activities in a room specially set up to measures energy expenditure by analysing their oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide exhalation, while the Deakin team tracked movements.

Results published today in the journal PLOS ONE show children moved more while undertaking interactive activities like drawing or playing with toys than when involved in passive pastimes like watching TV.