Table 7.

Facilitators and barriers to workshop implementation from the perspective of workshop leaders, with sample quotes (study objective 2)

FACILITATORS	Starting with play	V1: We laid out equipment in preparation which is great ‘cause the kids engage early… they’re already vibrantly engaged. The families are thrilled cause they’re not trying to control their kids behavior
		V2: I think it was really important … to start engaging [the children] with play from the beginning, like showing them what to do so they felt like they were very comfortable in the room.
		E4: We also found it super beneficial to have lots of games for the kids to play at the beginning, while the parents are filling out consent forms or questionnaires.
	Working as a team	V2: I also think it really helped that we kind of worked as a team, like some [leaders] got the activities ready and some [leaders] talked with the parents, and some [leaders] were able to just introduce things.
		E5: I think for [Leader 4] and myself, we worked together quite well and understood each other’s roles quite well.
	Strong/adaptable workshop leaders	V1: Proactive leadership with energy … the modeling of the fun, and engagement, and energy is critical to leadership … it’s more modelling but it is also critical to engaging the kids and engaging the families.
		V2: We kind of just did it with a lot of energy and tried to figure out [differences] … cause some families and children are more engaged than others.
	Tempo/flow	V1: … the tempo of the workshop; the time between the different activities worked very well. Nobody really gets bored … they actually like the activity while you’re introducing another activity and then they might be more encouraged to do it at home.
		V3: I like the activities that were in there and the flow between the PLAYshop elements … it all went really smoothly together.
		E4: … when things started to get not as exciting, moving on quickly so that they weren’t getting bored and they were staying engaged.
	‘Let’s make’ equipment	V1: I think engaging the ‘Let’s Make’ stuff is critically important ‘cause we may not all have the resources to give them a goody-bag.
		V2: I think also the ‘recycled’ part works very well because … it’s more accessible to have these things at home.
	Goody bags	V1: [The parents] absolutely loved the handouts.
		V2: I think the goody-bag worked ‘cause they have some of the gear … they have the things to actually do some of the activities.
		E4: I thought that the goody bag that we gave them at the end was great, and a lot of them were really excited about the items in there.
	Community champion	V1: … having a really engaged community champion that actually helps with recruitment.
		V3: … having contacts with rec centers and daycare centers or whatever facility you’re working at that are really excited about the workshop makes it easier as well.
	Organization	V1: I think our planning did work … we had a worksheet of the schedule and the activities – I referred to it to prep every time. So, prepping every time using the tools I think really matters. So, early set-up, reminder of activities, dividing up activities across the staff if you’re sharing load, I think all those things helped.
		V3: … as long as you can do your set up quick and then you have all of your supplies ready for parents. We found that having all [parent’s] sheets labeled and enough clipboards made it really easy to get the workshop underway.
	Engaged parents	V2: … motivated parents was a huge help for the workshop, ‘cause they could encourage the children…
		V3: I think the parents being eager and excited about physical literacy and how they could get their children involved made it really easy to facilitate the workshops.
		E5: I think it was easier when the parents were more excited about it, and their children’s temperament was a little bit easier … if they were interested in, if their parents were interested, then it went well.
	Having children attend	V1: I liked that siblings could come ‘cause I think it helps with recruitment.
		V2: … some parents that showed up without their children cause they didn’t [think] that they could bring their children … maybe we should emphasize that.
	Favorable spaces	V1: We ended up with some good locations … we had very good spaces with enough room for movement and typically not shared.
		E5: We only had one gym or like one room. It was a multipurpose room, so it was a good size, like it was enough space.
BARRIERS	Participants feeling shy/embarrassed	V1: … we did have two parents come, they didn’t think they should bring their child and they left early cause they felt embarrassed ...
		V2: … one of them [the workshops] … sometimes the children and also the parents could be … kind of like feeling shy. Like, “should we just do it”?
	Parking issues	E4: … near the end we had some issues with the room we were renting; [the room] was in a rec center that was really busy … so parents were struggling to find parking, unfortunately.
		E5: There was a couple of weekends where the facility we were at … had all kinds of tournaments booked … we couldn’t actually park on the property. We had to park really far away. I think sometimes parents might be a little bit late because of that.
	Recruitment & low attendance rates	V1: Recruiting is the biggest barrier.
		V2: … the biggest problem within our delivery was probably the number of families showing up.
		E4: We had one workshop where one or two parents didn’t show up. So only one parent was there with their child.
	Children’s behavior	V1: … the younger children that were there that were on the [age range of three to five] or the siblings that were below the [age range] of three, caused some havoc.
		V2: … they were actually hungry … it was kind of sometimes maybe making them not concentrate or focus … it had an impact on the parents, that their children were kind of upset about being hungry.
	Unengaged parents	V2: … we also experienced that the parents maybe knew each other, and they’ll be talking on the outside [of the group] and then we kinda work more of a childcare system where they just came and hangout while we were doing some activities.
		E5: ...the parent was not really like helping out or in some cases they might be on their phones, they weren’t doing some of this stuff.
	Parent’s not managing children	V1: we had this one [parent] that had two kids in a more small space and she just let them engage with the equipment whenever they liked, however they liked. If they did something that wasn’t intended with the equipment it interfered with all the other children and made it a dangerous situation. We literally had to step in.
		E4: … one parent brought their one preschooler and two or three, school-aged children, and they just kind of took over the games and weren’t really listening. And the parent wasn’t asking them to listen ...
	Children as a distraction	E4: For a while we were playing a different game, but [the kids] were getting excited and kind of screaming. And so parents were not listening to me anymore. They were listening to the kids and watching the kids. I think they might’ve missed some of the messaging then.
		E5: … if the children wanted to hang out with their parents the whole time … they wouldn’t really want to come aside and play. They just want to stick to their parents. And there might be a little bit of distraction there.
	Unfavorable spaces	V1: Some of the spaces are noisier than others.
		V2: … I think some of [the spaces] were very small and some of them were very big, and when they were very big we usually split it, like made it smaller, ‘cause I think one time we had not a lot of children in a really huge space and that was very difficult cause then they’re all over the place.
		V3: In the [Victoria space B] one specifically … it was also very, very big. So it was hard, if parents were too far away, to hear us.