The effect of physical activity on spatial perception and attention in early childhood

Abstract This study aims to determine the influence of regular physical activity on attention among 4"" and 5* graders. A total of 60 4"" and 5"" graders aged between 9-11 participated in the study. This is an experimental study which employs a pretestposttest control group design. The experimental and control groups consisted of 30 children each, who did and did not engage in sports activities respectively. The data were collected using personal information form and Bourdon Attention Test, and analyzed using Gretl software package with multiple regression analysis. The results show that physically active children had significantly higher attention levels compared to sedentary children (p<0.05). In conclusion, engaging in physical activities regularly and vmder the supervision of a trainer positively affects attention development in 4"' and 5* graders. Key words: Physical Activity, Sports, Attention, Bourdon Attention Test, Early Adolescence

BMC Pediatrics, 2011

Background: Randomized controlled trials (RCT) are required to test relationships between physical activity and cognition in children, but these must be informed by exploratory studies. This study aimed to inform future RCT by: conducting practical utility and reliability studies to identify appropriate cognitive outcome measures; piloting an RCT of a 10 week physical education (PE) intervention which involved 2 hours per week of aerobically intense PE compared to 2 hours of standard PE (control). Methods: 64 healthy children (mean age 6.2 yrs SD 0.3; 33 boys) recruited from 6 primary schools. Outcome measures were the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Battery (CANTAB), the Attention Network Test (ANT), the Cognitive Assessment System (CAS) and the short form of the Connor's Parent Rating Scale (CPRS:S). Physical activity was measured habitually and during PE sessions using the Actigraph accelerometer.

2016

In this commentary, an argument for using physical literacy as a guiding framework for the design, implementation and evaluation of physical activity interventions targeting cognitive development in early childhood is offered. While physical activity and exercise have been shown to be positively linked to cognitive development, selecting the right kinds of activities for children, particularly in the first six years of life, is critical to ensuring children stay engaged and benefit from participation. The concept of “thinking movement” has been described before, where emphasis is placed not only on the importance of physical activity, but the combination of cognitive (e.g., problem solving) and movement based skills together as necessary for stimulating positive change in cognitive ability. Physical literacy offers great potential as a framework beyond thinking movement because it focuses not only on movement (motor skill) and physical activity, but also affective (fun) and motivati...

Increasing time in physical activity could help combat childhood obesity. In addition to physical health, daily physical activity's benefits on the brain and cognitive functioning have been extensively researched and provide support for incorporating more physical activity into physical education and the school day. This research investigated the effects of physical activity on academic achievement in kindergarten children across the 2008/09 school year. The main hypothesis examined in the study was whether children who participated in the Interactive Physical Activity Center (IPAC) would perform better academically than the control group on the Dibels Oral Reading Fluency, Retell Fluency, and Group Mathematics Assessment and Diagnostic Evaluation (G-Made) achievement tests. To ensure that children in the experimental group were physically active, participation, changes in heart rate, activity scores and perceived exertion were examined across the year. Third, school attendance was examined to determine if the experimental group had fewer school absences than the control group. A longitudinal nonequivalent control group design was used to investigate the relationship between physical activity and academic achievement. To determine if the children were active in the IPAC, a oneway ANOVA examined changes in fitness variables. For the main question of the study concerning physical activity and academic achievement a two-way (Group X Time) ANOVA was used to compare academic progress of the experimental and control group. To assess school attendance of the two groups, a one-tailed independent samples t-test was used. Results v demonstrated that kindergarten children who received the IPAC program increased their physical activity and reached the academic performance level of the control group by the end of the school year. The experimental group experienced a greater rate of improvement over time in three out of four of the Dibels subtests compared to the control group, and improved the same as the controls in the Growth Scale Value of the G-Made. These results expand previous research on the relationship between physical activity and academic performance in kindergarten children.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of a 6-week preschool movement program on the perceptual-motor abilities of preschoolers. The study utilized a one-group pretest-posttest design, followed by retention tests. Participants included 37 preschoolers (17 boys and 20 girls) from two early childhood development centers in mid-western United States. The movement program focused on the following: visual memory, response time, eye-hand coordination/hand steadiness, and agility. It consisted of six sessions (one per week) each lasting 40 minutes. The Visual Memory Test (VMT), Response Time Test (RTT), Rotary Pursuit Task (RPT), and Shuttle Run Test-Preschool (SRT-P) served as the main data sources. One-Way Repeated Measures ANOVA indicated significant effects for all four tests. Bonferroni follow-up comparisons showed that the mean scores for all four posttests were significantly better than those for the pretests. Only the retention mean score for SRT-P differed signific...

The relationship between physical activity in school children, academic performance and their perceptual-motor skills is unclear. The aim of this study was to look at the relationship between perceptual-motor and cognitive skills. 487 subjects (249 girls, 238 boys) from 6 public centres of primary and secondary schools in the Barcelona area (Spain) volunteered to participate in this study. The participants were divided into two groups (9-12 years old) and (13-16 years old). Four tests were used to evaluate cognitive (Linguistic Skills [LS] and Math Skills [MS]) and perceptual-motor skills (Tower of Cubes [TC] and Target Throwing [TT]). Stepwise multiple linear regression analyses demonstrated that TC and age were significant predictors of Linguistic Skills (LS) and Math Skills (MS) in both age groups. (R2=0.64, 9-12 years old) and (R2=0.45, 13-16 years old). The results from this study suggest that enhanced motor skills are associated with better academic performance.

Journal of Motor Learning and Development, 2019

This document is the author's post-print version, incorporating any revisions agreed during the peer-review process. Some differences between the published version and this version may remain and you are advised to consult the published version if you wish to cite from it.

Physical activity presents clear benefits for children’s cognition; this study examined the effect of a single exercise session of open- or closed-skill exercise, as opposed to a no-exercise activity on multisensory perception, i.e. the ability to appropriately merge inputs from different sensory modalities, and on working memory (verbal, visuo-spatial, and motor working memory) in 51 preadolescent children (aged 6-8). Using a semi-randomised pre-post design, participants completed a range of cognitive tasks immediately before and after an exercise session or a classroom sedentary activity. Participants were randomised, within each school, to one of the three groups (open-skill, n=16; closed-skill, n=16; classroom activity, n=19). Exercise, but not usual classroom activity, improved children’s multisensory perception, with no difference between exercise types. Results also revealed that a single open-skill session produced verbal working memory (digit span) benefits; a closed-skill ...

Children, 2024

The aim was to investigate the impact of a specific structured movement activities (SMA) program compared to free play activity (FRP) on the strength, speed, agility, coordination, and balance of motor fitness (MF) in 6-year-old boys and girls. A total of 53 children (24 boys, 29 girls) were randomly allocated to either the SMA group or the FRP group. Both group activities were administered three times a week over a 6-month period. MF variables were assessed before (pre-) and after (post-) using tests: the flamingo balance (FLA), the standing long jump (SLJ), plate tapping (PTT), the obstacle course backwards (OCB), and the shuttle run 4 × 5 m (SRT). At the post-test, the SMA program resulted in significant (p < 0.05) improvements in OCB, PTT, SLJ, and SRT tasks. For FRP, a noteworthy improvement was observed only in OCB (ES = 0.45, p < 0.05). An ANCOVA revealed a significant group × time interaction (F = 21.71-52.41, η 2 = 0.258-0.512, p < 0.01) for OCB, PTT, and SRT, favoring SMA over FRP. The present findings suggest that SMA may be more effective than FRP when aiming to develop motor coordination, agility, and speed of movement in children.

The present research aims at studying, out of the content of psychomotricity, spatial orientation and the recognition of the body schema, which is basic in the extracurricular physical activity of normal children. In order to test the level of acquisition of these qualities in terms of psychomotor learning, subjects included in the research took part twice a week in physical activities based on movement games, having as the objective the improvement of psychomotricity. Their testing was achieved by adapting the test evincing the capacity of spatial orientation and body schema, which is grounded in evincing the capacity of spatial orientation and the degree of knowledge the child has of its own body, by acknowledging the spatial rapports and operating with specific language. After tests, it was observed that after going through physical activities with the proposed objectives, spatial orientation and bodily scheme had improved significantly, and there is a relationship between games of movement within the program of physical activities and the level of acquired skills on the orientation in space and body scheme.

2014

This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information,

Southeast Asia Early Childhood Journal, 2023

The aim of the study is to determine the movement skills, geometry and spatial perceptions of five-year-old children. The study group consisted of 222 children, 110 girls and 112 boys, who received preschool education in the spring semester of the 2021-2022 academic year in İstanbul, Türkiye. The correlational survey model, one of the quantitative research methods, was used in the study. The CHAMPS Motor Skills Protocol and the Test for Geometry and Spatial Perceptions were used as data collection instruments. In the data analysis, Kolmogorov-Smirnov, t-test, Mann Whitney U test and Spearman Brown test was used. It was seen that the average scores of manipulative skills of the children in the scope of fine motor development were higher than the average scores of locomotor skills in the scope of gross motor development. It was determined that the children got the highest score in the field of "recognition of shapes" for their geometry and spatial perceptions. In addition, it was revealed that girls scored higher than boys in recognizing shape, symmetry, mental appearance of shapes and discovering the properties of shapes, and the areas in which children were most successful in recognizing/distinguishing geometric shapes, without gender differences, while the dimension in which they got the lowest score was symmetry. A low negative correlation was determined between movement skills and geometry and spatial perception. It may be conducting longitudinal studies in which the effect of the relationship between movement skills, geometry and spatial perception on individuals' academic achievement or career choices.

2015

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2013

Abstract: This dissertation investigates the influence of physical activity on the cognitive and brain health of children. It is motivated by experimental studies in rodents and older adults that demonstrate a positive influence of physical activity and aerobic exercise on cognition, brain structure, and brain function. Furthermore, a growing number of cross-sectional studies suggest that physical activity and higher levels of aerobic fitness in children are positively associated with brain structure, brain function, cognition, and school achievement.

niitcrcs.com

A sample of 160 children (6-8 years with equal no. of boys and girls) was selected from two cities of Hisar and Farrukhabad of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh states respectively. Spatial cognition level of children was assessed and various strategies for the purpose of ...