‘Movement crisis’: Getting children to be physically active in digital world

Dr Johann Issartel and Dr Jamie McGann are the founders of MoveAhead, a motion-tracking platform designed to integrate movement and physical development into children's increasingly digital worlds. Both men are experts in learning science and children's movement, and were prompted to start their business by what they see as the "movement crisis" facing modern children who are spending an average of six hours a day in front of a screen.

“Physical activity continues to decline largely because children prefer the PlayStation to the playground,” Issartel says. “Games of the past, like hop-scotch, skipping and leap frog – which develop core physical skills – are no longer ‘child’s play’ and the majority of modern children can no longer hop, skip, throw or even kick a ball properly. This is a potential public health crisis as poor movement skills in childhood predict an aversion to physical activity and sport across a person’s lifetime. Our children are the first generation expected to die younger than their parents with sedentary screen time and overuse of digital devices as significant causal factors.”

MoveAhead was set up in 2020 and is a B2B business that will work with toy and games makers as well as app developers in the so-called “Kids Apps space” to integrate movement elements into their digital products. The company is based at Adapt, DCU’s centre for digital excellence where it employs six people.

The project has received €450,000 in support from Enterprise Ireland and is raising a seed round of €1.2 million. Seán Mitchell (co-founder of Movidius which was sold to Intel for €300 million) is an NED and the seed round will be used to develop and position MoveAhead as the leading global player in children's motion control and movement analysis.

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‘Inactivity timebomb’

“We are tackling the ticking inactivity timebomb by meeting children where they are – on their phones or tablets – and powering digital experiences that ‘move’ them across digital games, play, toys, sport and entertainment,” McGann says. “MoveAhead can track and then personalise a child’s movement experience so the interaction is never too hard and never too easy which keeps them engaged and confident in their movement. An issue with kids joining sports clubs now is that they’re dropping out because their physical skills are not good enough to keep up.”

Issartel adds that those designing apps for children are already well aware of parental and health concerns around their growing lack of physical activity and are keen to address the problem. “From providing key movement skills in childhood to sport-specific skills in adolescence, MoveAhead can act as a movement-maker,” he says. “However, it goes much deeper than just movement as it combines deep science, deep data and machine learning to ensure accuracy and an understanding of children’s movement . . . MoveAhead empowers those using our technology to identify where a child is on their movement learning pathway and to personalises the level of challenge and feedback for maximum enjoyment, engagement, development and growth.”

Sports and education

MoveAhead is designed for children aged 2-16, with a particular emphasis on sports and education. The platform is already in use as a virtual coach by companies such as Decathlon to provide real-time analysis and feedback on children’s soccer and tennis skills.

MoveAhead's competition comes from platforms such as Kinect and Wii and motion tracking from companies such as Google and Facebook AI. However, Issartel says the drawback is that these are not built for children. "They are meant for adults using adult data and adult data privacy rules. They fail to understand how children move and learn," he says. "By contrast, MoveAhead is child-centred and the first motion-tracking platform that is accurate and educational for kids. Privacy is at the heart of our design approach. This ensures our technology is not only healthy, educational and fun, but entirely safe for children."