Developmentally Appropriate Health in Physical Education

With the aim of building fundamental movement concepts for a strong foundation for the facilitation of skill acquisition, a ‘skill theme’ approach is presented. Practitioner content knowledge is shaped to fit the needs of the participant in physical activity. In this approach to physical task modifications and intra task variations, progressive adaptations are designed to meet developmental needs and support participant learning (Graham, 2008). The concept of developmentally appropriate task and activity design is familiar to the reflective practitioner in physical education. In this paper a health and skill related fitness program is outlined to frame participant skill acquisition and fitness development learning through a three phase resistance based movement program. The program; set across three distinct and linked phases; Levels 1, 2 and 3 (L1, L2, L3), is health and skill related fitness based, and targets resistance training for the lower body, the core and upper body. The developmentally appropriate design gives access to participation across three differing levels of complexity as predicated by participant skill fluency and comprehension level. The program sets an accumulative direction of travel using a series of exercises :- L1 use of body, no kit; L2, with a resistance band, L2; and with a suspension trainer, L3.