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Children get more active when given more toy choices or autonomy, according to two new studies.

The two University at Buffalo studies were conducted to identify basic factors that make children — 8-12 years old — more physically active.

"We wanted to see if providing children with choices or autonomy — the ability for the individual to decide how he or she wanted to be physically active — increased their intrinsic motivation to be physically active," said James Roemmich, PhD, associate professor of pediatrics in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

The results of studies showed that giving children more toy choices significantly increases their physical activity, especially in girls. And giving children the opportunity to master games — including exergames, such as Wii games — also increases their physical activity.

The first study, published in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sports, showed that when there was only one toy to play with, boys engaged in 1.3 times longer active play than girls.

But when children were given a choice of active toys, physically active play time increased by about 200 percent for girls, compared to an increase of just 42 percent for boys.

"Giving girls a choice of physical activities made their level of physical play equal to that of boys," says Denise M. Feda, co-author on both studies and UB postdoctoral associate in the Division of Behavioral Medicine of the UB Department of Pediatrics.

"Girls may enjoy the cognitive task of choosing toys, evaluating them and selecting which to play with, whereas the selection process and thinking about the toys may be less appealing to boys," the paper suggests.

In the study, average exercise intensity increased for both boys and girls when they were given a choice of toys. Active toys involved in the study included mini hockey, bean bag toss combined with tic-tac-toe, mini indoor basketball and jump rope.

In the second study, published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, the team looked more closely at how autonomy and mastery -- a force that motivates the child to develop proficiency -- increased a child's motivation for physical activity.

That research showed that a combination of autonomy and mastery was most powerful in increasing children's' physical activity time.

The researchers wanted to know if the mastery component of exergames or Wii games would motivate children to increase play time, reducing the need for choice to motivate activity.

"Indeed, we found that the combination of autonomy — choosing from several different games — and mastery —playing exergames — produced the greatest increases in physical activity time," says Roemmich.

However, while the children played Wii games for twice as long as they played traditional versions of the same games, such as basketball, boxing, golf and hockey, they expended only half the energy during Wii games.

"In traditional games, children expend a lot of energy chasing after balls and pucks, while with exergames, they are just waiting for the game to reset," says Roemmich.

"Focus on finding 3 to 5 active games that your children like and make them easily accessible around the home," Roemmich advised parents. These can be dance or yoga DVDs, exergames, or mini versions of basketball and hockey for in-home use.

And, he says, exergames do have their place. "If an exergame displaces watching TV or playing a videogame, then even the lighter intensity physical activity is preferable."