Exercising May Boost Children’s Ability To Learn

The Universities of Stirling and Edinburgh have conducted research stating that the memory and attention of children improves after exercise. The study in which 11,613 children signed up to participate in, shows that children’s best responses to testing occurred right after participating in physical activity that was set at their own pace as opposed to a more vigorous exercise according to the researchers.

This study, in its 6th investigation of the series, is part of the BBC’s campaign designed to inspire children to pursue a career in science, and is conducted in over 11,000 pupils across the U.K. The investigation is to discover the impact of taking a short break from classroom study to participate in a physical activity on their mood and cognitive abilities.

Children were asked questions in regards to their moods, alertness, and how they were feeling prior to completing memory and attention tasks on a computer. The children completed the questions and computer tasks both before and after they had participated in each of three outdoor away from classroom activities varying in intensity levels.

The most vigorous was the bleep test in which the children ran in time with bleeps that gradually quickened until they felt close to exhaustion. The intermediate test was a run/walk activity where children ran/walked at a rate and pace that they set on their own for 15 minutes. The control activity was the least intense where children went outside to sit/stand for 15 minutes, this was used as comparison to see if physical activity would have a greater impact than that of simply just going outside.

Over 7,300 children provided data on at least one of the key measurements used in relation to cognition and mood, with the participants having completed 22,349 batches of computer tasks. When children were involved in the physical activities were compared to the control children they reported feeling more awake after physical activity for a short period. The children reported feeling better and more awake after completing the run/walk activity, reporting no difference in the way they felt after completing the bleep test as compared to the controlled activity. Children responded more quickly to the attention task after completing the run/walk activity, there was no difference after completing the bleep and control activities. Children were better at controlling their responses after the run/walk and bleep activities than the control activity. After completing run/walk the children’s ability to remember words in sentences improved, with there being no real difference in the ability to remember shapes, there was no difference after completing the bleep and control activities.

The overall conclusion of the study was that exercising leads to the children demonstrating improvements in both mood and cognition. In most tasks completed the run/walk activity was the most beneficial. Suggesting that children should be encouraged to participate in activities set at their own pace during short periods of break from the classroom, as it may help them be in a better mood, and be more ready to learn when they return.