Awareness of Physical Activity in Children and the LUDUS Project

There are some sayings we often hear among the public: "Don't fear an active child!", "An active child is a good child!", "An active child is a healthy child!", or "A healthy child moves!" These sayings, whose accuracy is supported and proven by experts, are actually a reflection of hundreds of years of public life experience and accumulated knowledge. 

As parents, caregivers, doctors, or educators reading these lines know very well, a child is truly healthy as long as they are active, and they move as long as they are healthy. Just like adults, when children get sick, they do not want to eat, drink, move, or play games. 

So, when we look around us, do you think the children we see are active? Do you think the children we see at school, on public transport, at home, or on the street are able to move enough? If we have to answer these questions with an open heart, our answer will be "no!" Because many children around us lead a sedentary life. Especially in big cities, children cannot go out on the streets for safety reasons, and since most of them live in apartments, they cannot live in houses with gardens; for this reason, children usually spend their days sitting in front of screens or at school desks. Parents, due to their own busyness or other priorities in life, often hand their children a phone or tablet or sit them in front of the television, expecting them to sit without making noise. Children in front of phones, computers, televisions, or tablets eventually experience screen addiction, and this situation leads to major health problems.

So, is it possible for us to get our children moving without any equipment, gym, park, or playground? If it is possible, how can we achieve this? Now, I will tell you about a social responsibility project that can be a great answer to these questions. The name of this project is "LUDUS". Ludus is an international project that teaches basic movement skills through games; it awakens an awareness of physical activity in children by combining fun, play, and sports.

Within the scope of this EU-supported international project, which began its work in 2018 by the Sports Volunteers Association (Spor Gönüllüleri Derneği), it is aimed to provide basic movement training to children in the 1-6 age group and to instill an awareness of physical activity and sports in children. Within the scope of the project, thousands of preschool-aged children in Istanbul, Ankara, Rize, Erzurum, Hatay, and Aydın have been provided with basic movement training to date.

Ludus movement sessions, consisting of approximately 40 minutes of basic movement training provided free of charge in preschool institutions by expert Ludus trainers trained by the Sports Volunteers Association, are met with great joy by children and educators. Many institutions request the repetition of Ludus sessions, and children tell their families about the Ludus sessions with great excitement. These movement sessions, which children love and enjoy very much, can also be easily applied after the training under the supervision of parents and educators.

You can easily access the details and application areas of the Ludus project, which enables our 1-6 age group children to move with very simple equipment such as books, pillows, balloons, etc., and to gain basic movement skills through games, at https://www.ludusproject.com or via the Ludus application that you can download to your smartphones.

You can also contribute to the LUDUS Project, which will continue its movement training sessions in preschool institutions in the new academic year with the devoted work of the Sports Volunteers Association President and national swimmer Ahmet Nakkaş and association members, by contacting the Sports Volunteers Association at https://trsgd.org/ or through the association's social media accounts, and you can ensure that our children are more active and healthier.