A scheme in Scotland to encourage parents to play games with their newborn babies could soon become the model for a similar programme in England, as a way of tackling growing levels of obesity among children.
Sport England, the Government agency for promoting sport and healthy activity, is considering a range of pilot options to develop manuals which give parents ideas for games and activities to help nurture their child's physical development from birth.
A spokeswoman for Sport England said the programme was 'still in the early stages' of development but Play@home was one of the schemes that was being discussed.
Play@home, which is based on an established New Zealand programme - KiwiBaby - is a partnership between Fife Council education department and Fife Primary Care NHS Trust.
The exercise scheme was adapted and introduced by Fife in 1999 but it has now been extended to other areas of Scotland including Orkney, Aryshire and Shetland.
The programme was recognised as being an area of good practice by the Scottish Executive's Physical Activity Taskforce in its strategy document published last year.
Play@home is made up of a series of three books given to parents at different stages of their child's early life. The Baby Book is distributed by health visitors and given to parents of the 4,000 babies born in the Fife area every year.
Ideas include baby massage, deep-water bathing and exercise-related play activities to aid the baby's development.
The Toddler Book for one- to three-year-olds is automatically sent out when children reach their first birthday.
The third book is aimed at pre-school children and is given to parents when they register their child for nursery education.
David Maiden, the PE and youth sport manager with Fife council, said, 'This programme is about giving parents a tool they can use when they want. It's meant to try and encourage regular family play and to cement relationships between parent and child.'
Mr Maiden said the manuals offered a holistic approach to child development, promoting body awareness, social interaction through group play and talking and listening skills.
He added it was about 'getting parents to realise that they are their child's first teacher and probably the most influential teacher a child can have'.
Play@home co-ordinator Irene Miller said the manuals provide a valuable link between the home and nursery. She said, 'Nurseries can refer to the manuals for particular activities and also give parents examples of what to do at home.'
She added, 'The games are very easy to recreate at home. We're not asking people to buy equipment.'
Tied in with Play@home every nursery in Fife now also has access to play bags, which they can loan to parents on a weekly basis. Items include a soft ball and a miniature hockey stick suitable for a three-year-old.
She said, 'The beauty of this scheme is that some of these pieces of recommended equipment are what children will use in PE at school.'
Variations of the Play@home programme have been introduced across Scotland. They include a health demonstration project in Glasgow called 'Starting well', which uses the scheme at the baby and toddler stage.
In Paisley the programme is used by Have a Heart, an organisation which looks at ways of preventing coronary heart disease, and an evaluation project on a pilot Play@home scheme is underway in the Dumfries and Galloway region.