|  | Feature: Physical Education in Early Childhood | No.51 September 2007 |

Physical Education in Early Childhood, Introduction Richard Bailey |
Physical activity plays a central role in children’s development and learning. Look at almost any infant, in almost any setting, and you will see plenty of evidence of this; through activity children learn about their bodies, their physical and social environments, they try out different roles and rules, they test themselves. Indeed, it might be said, as it once was by the great psychologist Jerome Bruner, that movement, action and play make up the ‘culture of childhood’. This much, I think, would be accepted by most physical educationalists and sports scientists. It is also a frequent claim of NGOs and other organisations that promote child health and child physical activity. Many of these groups stress the vital importance of introducing children to physical activity from an early age. This makes a lot of sense as there is mounting evidence that healthy attitudes and behaviours are best developed when young. It is strange, then, that early years physical activity continues to receive relatively little attention from scholars. From the large number of empirical and theoretical academic papers that are published within the broad field of sport science, only a small minority relate at all to the early years. This Bulletin, which was co-edited with Alexander Woll, endeavours to address this shortcoming, albeit in an exploratory and tentative manner. The papers included in this edition report on a range of exciting initiatives and studies. They are also, implicitly, an invitation to join in with this fascinating area of inquiry. I hope you find these papers stimulating and provocative, and that this Bulletin generates new ideas and conversations about early years physical activity and physical education. Contact Prof. Dr. Richard Bailey Froebel College Roehampton University London, UK Email: r.bailey@roehampton.ac.uk http://www.icsspe.org/portal/index.php?w=1&z=5 Physical Education in Early Childhood, Introduction Richard Bailey