Search

Hayley Karen Christian Lombardi BSc (1st Class Hons), PhD (Distinction) W.Aust. BHSc (Hons), PhD Head, Child Physical Activity, Health and

The BEACHES project aims to provide high quality evidence of aspects of the built environment which can be modified to reduce the negative impact on children’s physical activity, eating behaviours and weight status.

Hayley Christian BSc (1st Class Hons), PhD (Distinction) W.Aust. Head, Child Physical Activity, Health and Development; Ascend Senior Research Fellow

Food environments are significant drivers of obesity and diet-related diseases, making them key targets for interventions that support healthier food choices. The role of Local Government Authorities is pivotal in shaping community food environments. 

Physical activity is crucial for young children's health and development. Many young children do not meet the recommended 3 hours of daily physical activity, including 60 min of energetic play. Early childhood education and care (ECEC/childcare) is a key setting to intervene to improve children's physical activity. The Play Active programme is a scalable evidence-informed ECEC-specific physical activity policy intervention with implementation support strategies to improve educators' physical activity-related practices.

Childhood obesity and physical inactivity are two of the most significant modifiable risk factors for the prevention of non-communicable diseases. Yet, a third of children in Wales and Australia are overweight or obese, and only 20% of UK and Australian children are sufficiently active.

Developmental theory and previous studies support the potential value of prodromal interventions for infants at elevated likelihood of developing autism. Past research has supported the efficacy of parent-mediated prodromal therapies with infants from as early as 7 months. We outline the rationale for implementing interventions following this model from even earlier in development and report on the feasibility of a novel intervention developed following this model of parent-mediated infant interventions.

The influence of the neighbourhood built environment on young children's physical development has been well-documented; however, there is limited empirical evidence of an association with social and emotional development. Parental perceptions of the neighbourhood built environment may act as facilitators or barriers to young children's play and interactions in their local environment. The aim of this study was to examine the associations between parents' perceptions of the neighbourhood built environment and the social-emotional development of children aged two-to-five years.

Despite immense benefits of physical activity on health and developmental outcomes, few children achieve recommended daily levels of physical activity. Given more than half of families with children own a dog, we investigated the effect of a mobile health (mHealth) intervention to encourage dog-facilitated physical activity through increased family dog walking and children's active play with their dog.

The relationship between physical activity and child health and development is well-documented, yet the extant literature provides limited causal insight into the amount of physical activity considered optimal for improving any given health or developmental outcome.