Exercising at own pace boosts learning ability

NEW UK research has found that giving children short breaks to participate in physical activity of their own choice can improve attention and memory.

The study was jointly led by Dr Colin Moran and Dr Naomi Brooks, of the University of Stirling’s Faculty of Health Sciences and Sport, and Dr Josie Booth of the University of Edinburgh’s Moray House School of Education.

They looked at how taking a break from the classroom to partake in physical activity could have an effect on mood and cognitive abilities.

A total of 11,613 primary school-age children across the UK took part in the research and were asked to complete memory and attention tasks before and after they participated in each of three outdoor activities of varying intensities.

The bleep test was the most intense activity and required the children to run in time with bleeps, which gradually become quicker, until they felt close to exhaustion.

The run/walk activity was an intermediate intensity level and required children to run or walk at a speed of their own choice for 15 minutes.

For the control activity, which was the least intense activity, children were asked to go outside to sit or stand for 15 minutes.

The children were also asked to answer questions about how happy and awake they were feeling before the tasks.

The team found that compared to the control group, the children reported feeling more awake after taking a break and doing exercise for a short amount of time, although they felt most awake after the run/walk exercise than after the bleep test.

When compared to the control group, the children also reported feeling better after doing the run/walk, but reported no difference in the way they felt after the bleep test.

After the run/walk, the children’s ability to remember words in sentences improved, they were better at controlling their responses, and they responded more quickly to the attention task, compared to the control and bleep test activities.

“Overall, our study concluded that exercising leads to improvements in children’s mood and cognition,” said Moran.

“In most tasks, participating in a run/walk activity was more beneficial that doing the bleep test, where children should be closer to exhaustion.

“However, in most cases, doing the bleep test was no different from completing the control activity.”

Booth added: “This suggests that children should be encouraged to exercise at their own pace during short breaks from class. This may help children be more ready to learn when they return to the classroom.”

“Importantly, this exercise should be in addition to normal physical education and also at a time when the class teacher thinks the class would benefit the most from a break.” – AFPRelaxnews previous studies also looking at prosocial behaviour, which found that teenagers who show these positive behaviours are less likely to be in trouble and have better relationships with their family.

However, this is the first time she has found an association between pro-social behaviour and selfesteem.

Padilla-Walker now suggests that parents encouraging teens to help others could be a way of helping them boost their confidence, selfrespect and self-worth during what can be a difficult period of selfexploration. – AFP-Relaxnews