This study suggests that TV viewing may affect preschool child weight status through displacement of physical activity or eating while viewing.

This paper tests the hypothesis that access to digital technology alone guarantees development of crucial literacies and that "new media" are more critical in the developmental process than older electronic and print media (the "digital natives" thesis). Secondly, that the context of access and mediation provided by parents (as "digital immigrants") are no longer crucial in guiding the acquisition of foundational literacy skills, including ICT literacy. There is very little research on young children and new media. In the absence of large-scale empirical data some writers have assumed that new media will resemble television in its effects of on the development of a child's language abilities. The research presented in this paper uses an longitudinal data to disentangle the effects of access, context, time "exposed" to different media, including reading, on the child's language skills at different stage of their development, while controlling for family socioeconomic resources. Methods Methods Methods Methods This paper uses data from the first three waves of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) (Soloff, Lawrence & Johnstone, 2005). Briefly, LSAC is a national longitudinal study which follows two Australian cohorts born in 1999 and 2003 at two year intervals starting in 2004. The 2003 cohort (n=5107) and the 1999 cohort (n=4983) were aged 0-1 and 4-5 years respectively in 2004. Data were obtained using a combination of a face-to-face interview, self complete questionnaires, a child's time use diary; and, for the 1999 cohort

Partnering early childhood education and care (ECEC) and the home together may be more effective in combating obesogenic risk factors in preschool children. Thus, an evaluation of ECEC obesity prevention interventions with a parental component was conducted, exploring parental engagement and its effect on obesity and healthy lifestyle outcomes. A search revealed 15 peer-reviewed papers. Some studies demonstrated positive weight changes, and secondary outcomes of changes in physical activity and healthy eating were reported in most studies; study quality ranged from fair to good. Four findings were linked to weight changes: (1) when educational material is consistent across settings; (2) capacity building of parents; (3) parents encouraging their children to drink water and (4) parental satisfaction and participation. A partnership between parents and ECEC may be a powerful force in the prevention of paediatric obesity. A better understanding of collaborative parental engagement is needed.

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SUMMARYThere is mounting evidence that current food production, transport, land use and urban design negatively impact both climate change and obesity outcomes. Recommendations to prevent climate change provide an opportunity to improve environmental outcomes and alter our food and physical activity environments in favour of a 'healthier' energy balance. Hence, setting goals to achieve a more sustainable society offers a unique opportunity to reduce levels of obesity. In the case of children, this approach is supported with evidence that even from a young age they show emerging understandings of complex environmental issues and are capable of both internalizing positive environmental values and influencing their own environmental outcomes. Given young children's high levels of environmental awareness, it is easy to see how environmental sustainability messages may help educate and motivate children to make 'healthier' choices. The purpose of this paper is to highlight a new approach to tackling childhood obesity by tapping into existing social movements, such as environmental sustainability, in order to increase children's motivation for healthy eating and physical activity behaviours and thus foster more wholesome communities. We contend that a social marketing framework may be a particularly useful tool to foster behaviour change beneficial to both personal and environmental health by increasing perceived benefits and reducing perceived costs of behaviour change. Consequently, we propose a new framework which highlights suggested pathways for helping children initiate and sustain 'healthier' behaviours in order to inform future research and potentially childhood obesity intervention strategies.

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THIS PAPER REPORTS FINDINGS from a randomised investigation into the effect of teacher-designed, play-based learning experiences on preschool-aged children's knowledge connections between healthy eating and active play as wellbeing concepts, and sustainability. The investigation used a ‘ funds of knowledge’ theoretical framework to situate young children's interests in digital media and popular culture, as a site for learning these knowledge connections. The findings suggest that the intervention group children created more wellbeing and sustainability knowledge connections than the waitlist control group children. Additionally, the intervention group children demonstrated an increase in vegetable serves and a decrease in unhealthy food servings post intervention (measured by parent report). The paper suggests that more attention should be paid to early childhood teachers’ capacity for actively building children's knowledge about wellbeing and sustainability concepts through play-based learning, as opposed to top-down approaches towards obesity education and prevention alone.

Excessive television (TV) viewing in early childhood has been associated with adverse cognitive and behavioural outcomes. [1][2][3] A recent review of the literature revealed that TV viewing in the formative pre-school years has also been linked with other health concerns including sleep difficulties, increased aggression, anxiety and obesity. 4 Given that early childhood is the time in which the foundations for future behaviours and habits are established and evidence shows that TV behaviours track from early childhood to adolescence, 5 it is not surprising that there has been much interest in determining an 'appropriate' amount of screen time for pre-schoolers. The aim of this paper is to review current recommendations around Australian pre-school children's TV use and the implications of these guidelines when we consider current data pertaining to young children's TV viewing behaviour.