Physical exercise improves children's cognitive skills

A study carried out by scientists from the University of Illinois, in the United States, once again highlights the importance of physical exercise in educational centers. The research, conducted with 9-year-old children, showed that they were better focused on intellectual tasks after a walking tape session than after a while of rest. It has already been shown in adults and in older people that physical exercise increases cognitive abilities, but until now this effect has not been found in children. Physical activity increases the attention span of students and therefore improves their academic performance.

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Measurements with electrodes

A total of 20 children, 8 girls and 12 boys, 9 years old participated in the tests. All were subjected to series of stimulus discrimination tests, to evaluate their inhibitory control. One of the days, the students did these tests after a rest period of 20 minutes and another of the days they did after walking for 20 minutes on a treadmill.

After both periods, participants were presented with congruent and incongruent stimuli on a screen, and were asked to press a button when they saw incongruent stimuli. The children were also placed on the head, a device with electrodes, with which electroencephalographic activity was measured brain bioelectric activity while they performed these tests.

Thus, it was discovered that, after walking for a while, the children performed better in stimulus discrimination tasks. In fact, they note that they achieved a higher rate of accuracy, especially when tests were more difficult.

Greater performance in reading comprehension

In addition to this effect on behavior, the researchers also found that there was an increase in neuroelectric signals related to attention. According to the children were more able to apply care resources after physical exercise, and this effect was greater in the most difficult conditions of the tests posed, suggesting that when the environment is noisier visual noise in this case, children are more capable to selectively attend to the correct stimuli, and to act accordingly.

A second part of the experiment was developed with a test of academic achievements, in an attempt to emulate the real learning of children in class. This test was used to measure the performance of the children in three areas, reading, spelling and mathematics.

Again, the results were the same: better performance in the tests, after the physical exercise than after the rest. Reading comprehension was the most beneficial task.

Improvement of cognitive skills at any age

Researchers have now launched another project that will test another form of exercise more widespread among children than the treadmill: the Wii Fit video game, which is an example of play and physical exercise at the same time, for get even more realistic results.

In any case, the researchers point out that the data already obtained should be taken into account when making useful changes in school schedules. Simple modifications to integrate could have a very positive effect on student performance, they point out.

For example, they recommend that the subject of physical education have 150 minutes per week at the elementary level, and 225 minutes per week in secondary school, and that teachers be encouraged to integrate physical activity into teaching.

Thanks to this research, it was learned that older people who are physically fit tend to have a larger hippocampus and a better spatial memory than those who are not in shape.

The hippocampus is a part of the brain located in the temporal lobe, which forms a part of the limbic system and participates in memory and spatial orientation. According to the study carried out by the scientists, the size of the hippocampus in older people in good physical shape would explain 40% of their advantage in spatial memory with respect to other people.

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Why is it important to include sport in education?

In very few cases we get children who do not like sports, because they stand out in another area, some in art, culture, dance and music, but let's see what the child gets when doing sports.

• Promotes the development and social integration: The sport practice encloses, in its essence, the game in all its manifestations as an unbeatable means of interaction with others, achieving levels of integration that almost no other activity can achieve, with all that it implies in the construction of the individual as a social being. In the game there are no colors, races, creeds or strata and, in general, athletic students are instilled with respect for differences between people.

• Generates sense of belonging: Being in a sports team creates a sense of belonging and therefore of identity and strength among young people in training.

• Form in values and virtues: Sport is an appropriate tool to teach everyone, but especially the youngest, values and virtues such as justice, loyalty, improvement, coexistence, respect, companionship, teamwork, discipline, responsibility and tolerance.

• Help coexistence: Normally, sport forces children to work as a team, to collaborate with others and to learn that strength is in the union of many.

• Stimulates the brain: The brain of children, especially, needs to move to learn. What's more, the brain learns and remembers more when it is in motion. In addition, physical exercise regulates the segregation of three neurotransmitters associated with good mental health. These substances are dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine. Exercising stimulates the memory and executive functions of the frontal lobe, so that children who do it regularly identify visual stimuli more quickly and concentrate more
  passive children.

• Raises self-esteem: Children who play a sport or do physical exercise often have higher self-esteem, suffer less depression and anxiety. It also allows them to make catharsis, because when they hit, for example, a ball, rages and repressed frustrations are released, and this is healthy.

• Forge discipline: Practicing sports on a regular basis encourages discipline in general: young athletes are more organized, structured and less likely to fall into bad habits. It can become a factor of personal development. Sport can be and in fact it is a factor of development of the person to become a lifestyle that leads the individual to make this practice their vocation and profession, and even an opportunity to abandon certain personal or social realities.

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