Try to keep up with a 9-year-old. You’ll have a job on your hands.

The typical kid spends about three hours each day in some form of healthy play: running, biking, walking, swimming, skateboarding and playing in pick-up games of basketball.

That begins to change in the early teen years, when activity levels drop. By age 15, less than a third of teens get the recommended one hour or more of exercise each day, according to a new comprehensive study of childhood activity conducted for the National Institutes of Health.

The reported decline in youth activity doesn’t come as a surprise to doctors, parents or teens.

“I do see it, especially in girls,” said Kayley McNeal, a 13-year-old from Lake Stevens. “Basically, it’s probably because … we start to have boyfriends and start to want to hang out with friends instead of going out and doing activities.

“We see it as more of a chore instead of something fun.”

Kids are under pressure to take more challenging courses of college and to prepare for the WASL, the state-mandated test of student educational skills, said Dr. Jim Troutman, a pediatrician for The Everett Clinic.

“P.E. kind of gets shoved to the side — almost an afterthought. It isn’t given priority.”

One other big factor: the hours kids spend with computers, games and messaging friends.

“They’re becoming so connected to their electronics,” Troutman said. “In my household, I have to say, ‘We’re eating dinner now; you have to put your phone away.’ They’re text messaging under the table.”

Parental fears for their child’s safety also play a role, said Jeralin Olson, a health and wellness coordinator at the Marysville YMCA.

“Parents are afraid to let their kids go out and play,” she said. “So the child sits at home and eats chips and dip.”

With gas prices topping $4 a gallon, the economy also is playing a role, she said. Parents “have got to worry about getting back and forth to work before they put their kid in a camp.”

The national study that came out earlier this month on childhood activity levels tracked 800 children, beginning at age 9, with follow-up checks at ages 11, 12 and 15.

And rather than just asking them to keep a record of how much physical activity they get, each child had a small device that could be clipped to a belt to provide information on just how active they were.

For this reason, this study may give a more accurate picture of kids’ true activity levels, Troutman said.

While a number of local community groups offer activity programs for kids, a program through the YMCA in Snohomish County specifically targets teens. The program will be offered next at both the Marysville and Everett branches in September.

It is a free, but there are some stringent requirements. Kids must be referred by their physicians because they either are overweight or at risk of being overweight. And both the teen and a parent must agree to stick with the twice-a-week, 90-minute program for 12 weeks, with an additional six weeks of maintenance, to help participants lock in their new habits.

The program emphasizes the need for the whole family to pair healthy eating with regular activity, not just leaving it up to kids to make the changes on their own.

Jeannie McNeal and her daughter, Kayley McNeal, both signed up.

“We loved it; we were sad when it came to an end,” Jeannie McNeal said. The class didn’t emphasize weigh-ins or waist-and-hip-measurements, although she said she her daughter lost both inches and pounds.

“I saw a big change in how she felt about herself from start to end.”

Parents and kids learned about healthy portions and nutritious eating, emphasizing that being active can be fun.

Kids could choose from a number of activities, including racquetball, exercise machines and the popular dance-exercise Zumba classes, set to a bouncy, Latin beat.

Kayley McNeal said she saw changes at nearly every class, being able to do a few more sit ups each time.

Now she walks for a half-mile before taking a breather. She takes bike rides and walks the dog with her mom. On weekends, she joins her dad for outings of trap and skeet shooting.

“It’s like a light switch,” said Caroline Brown, health and fitness director of the Marysville YMCA. “Something turns on and they know it’s making a difference.”

Reporter Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.

Classes for teens

The YMCA branches in Marysville and Everett are scheduled to offer classes in September for teens who are overweight or at risk of being overweight on how to improve their fitness levels and eating choices. The classes are free, but the teens must be referred by their physician. For more information, call Caroline Brown, health and fitness director of the Marysville YMCA, at 360-651-1605.

Five, two, one, zero

Dr. Jim Troutman, a Stanwood pediatrician, says this is the tip he gives kids and families on how to remember the keys to healthy living:

5Five servings of fruits and vegetables each day

2Hours or less each day of time spent with a television, computer, with video games, or other electronic devices.

1 One hour each day of vigorous physical activity

0No soda pop