These days, students at Halcyon Elementary School in Montgomery, Ala., cannot wait to get to physical education class.
As part of Alabama’s Wee Can Fight Obesity campaign, Halcyon Elementary is one of dozens of schools that received a free Nintendo Wii Fit, a video game system that requires players to move around to earn points, also known as ‘exergaming.’
“They don’t even realize they’re exercising,” said Audrey Gillis, the school’s PE teacher. “It’s fabulous.”
Gillis’ students use the Wii two to three times a week during the 30-minute PE class and “they just love it — we actually had some of the little children cry because it wasn’t their Wii day,” she said.
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1 comment
Martha says:
Mar 2, 2012
I think the games are a wonderful exercise motivator but would like to see games developed for children and adults with developmental disabilities. My daughter loves the Wii Fit but due to spasticity in one leg, she cannot balance evenly on the board and hence cannot play several of the games. I also am ambivalent about the interface for personalizing your “Mii.” She comes in above an ideal weight so the program generates a heavy-set Mii for her and makes a disappointed face when she weighs in. I would find that motivating but she does not have the cognitive skills necessary to put it in perspective so she just states, “I’m fat.” This breaks my heart because it is her low-tone and spascity that contributes to her lack of exercise and weight so we require a program that it very motivating and non-judgemental. I doubt the game programmers would create such speciality games due to a small market, but would love to see some grant funding made available for universities or others to develop such games.