Changes to knowledge and confidence of early childhood education and care staff on healthy eating and physical activity guidelines: Results from the LEAPS Project (Learning, Eating, Active Play, Sleep)

In 2014, 37% of Australian children aged 0-4 years attended an Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) setting1, making them important environments to support the establishment of lifelong healthy behaviours for children. In 2013, Queensland University of Technology and NAQ Nutrition were funded by the Queensland Government to develop and implement the LEAPS (Learning, Eating, Active Play, Sleep) Professional Development Program which is underpinned by the “Get Up and Grow” Guidelines (GUG). ECEC staff who participated in the program completed pre and post professional-development questionnaires (Pre-PDPQ & Post-PDPQ) online. Questions were based on knowledge, confidence and attitudes to the GUG guidelines as well as current practises and communication strategies used. Demographics including age, gender, postcode of service, education level and previous attendance at nutrition or physical activity professional development were collected. A total of 1525 educators completed the Pre-PDPQ with 816 going on to complete both a LEAPS professional development session and the Post-PDPQ. Respondents were from long-day-care, family-day-care and kindergarten settings, metropolitan, regional and remote locations with the group being representative of ECEC populations. The Pre-PDPQ found that participant knowledge was poor, irrespective of demographic factors including qualifications, with only 2% answering all eleven nutrition questions correctly. In contrast confidence was very high despite GUG guidelines being available to participants at the time of the survey. The Post-PDPQ found that participants were more likely to choose the correct answer for all eleven knowledge questions, and the majority of participants high confidence remained however 6% of those who had rated themselves as neutral on the pre-PDPQ rated themselves as extremely confident or confident on the Post-PDPQ. Results from LEAPS highlight the importance of professional development programs that support the implementation of guidelines and evidence based best practise for children in ECEC settings