Educating through the Physical—behavioral interpretation

Background: Physical activity holds great promise as a natural and enjoyable setting for learning and for behavioral change. Despite claims that engagement in physical activity can promote socially desired behaviors, there remains a lack of a clear conceptual base that can guide interventions as well as research endeavors in this field. This situation leaves those who utilize physical activity as a learning agent to base their practice on common sense, intuition, or trial and error. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide the conceptual framework of ‘Educating through the Physical’. This framework is grounded in the theory of Behavior Analysis and the principles of that science provide the guidelines for application and for the use of various procedures. The paper presents the rationale for ‘Educating through the Physical’ by identifying the unique qualities of activity and games, while providing behavioral interpretation for their merit. Principles and procedures: Functional Analysis is presented as the main diagnostic tool used to reveal the motivating and maintaining factors for certain behaviors. Various behavioral principles and procedures are defined, their application within the context of physical activity is exemplified, and their role as vital ingredients of successful programs is explained. These principles include establishing operations, modeling, shaping, consequence alteration, behavioral momentum, desensitization, functional communication and generality of behavior. Recommendations: General guidelines for ‘Educating through the Physical’ that are based on behavioral principles conclude this paper.