A mother sits with her two children a young girl and a middle school aged boy with a developmental disability on a park bench

Leading a healthy lifestyle begins very early in life. Our parents and families are very influential in how much we value eating a healthy diet and incorporating exercise into our daily lives. With the incidence of childhood obesity and diabetes continually increasing, it is more important now than ever for parents to help facilitate activity in their children's lives. It is even more important to do so for children with disabilities, as they tend to engage in lower levels of physical activity.

Incorporating exercise into your family's busy lifestyle is not only easy, but can be very fun and beneficial for the whole family.

One of the biggest benefits of exercising and being active with the family is that it can be a very social activity. The family members can help motivate each other to be active and to help think up new and exiting ways to stays healthy. Parents should motivate their children by example and not by the "do as I say, not what I do" principal, since children are known to act according to what they see others doing.