Kids Who Exercise Don’t Sweat Tests

Physically active children are healthier and score better on intellectual tests than their sedentary peers. Dina Fine Maron reports.

October 9, 2014 |By Dina Fine Maron

00:00-01:27

Hey kids, here’s a good reason to work up a sweat: when young people exercise for an hour each day it also helps boost their brain power. That’s according to a study of more than 200 kids in the journal Pediatrics. [Charles H. Hillman et al: Effects of the FITKids Randomized Controlled Trial on Executive Control and Brain Function] Seven, eight and nine year-olds were randomly selected to enroll in an after-school exercise program or be placed on a wait list. The exercisers performed much better on intellectual tests. And there was a dosage effect: kids who spent more time in the program performed even better than kids who were enrolled in the program but had spotty attendance.

Government guidelines already recommend that everyone aged 6 to 17 engage in an hour or more of moderate- and vigorous-intensity physical activity daily, but many kids still do not meet this threshold. Better cognitive capabilities could be a selling point for more exercise.

The study could not tease apart how much increased physical fitness versus social interactions in the exercise program may have contributed to better accuracy on cognitive tasks. But other work has suggested that exercise is better for cognition than social interactions alone. Regardless, a workout that offers both is a win-win.

—Dina Fine Maron

I got this news from a magazine called: Scientific American: http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/kids-who-exercise-don-t-sweat-tests/

 

This article talks about how sport can affect in 6-year-old kids’ studies, so I would classify it in “sports” and “brain exercise”.

 

 

Summary

This article is based in a study that has been made in the USA, and it consisted in selecting a random group of kids from 6-9 years old and testing on them how could the exercise affect to their activity in school. It also says that every kid from 6 to 17 should practice a sport, not only for their health but also to improve the way they relate to others.

Glossary

- Sweat: in this case it means that it is not too hard for them.

- Peer: colleague, friend.

- Boost: stimulate, motivate.

- Dosage (effect): there was a consequence after the experiment.

- Spotty: not regular.

- Threshold: the way to take up this exercise.

- Tease: annoy.

Critical review

This article may not inform about something new or very important nowadays in the world, but thanks to these kinds of studies we can create a better society. It sounds obvious that all parents want their sons to get good marks and to have a lot of friends, but this is not easy for kids sometimes.

The study realized by Charles H. Hillman proves that those kids that practice some sport get better marks and have better relationships with their companions in class.  In my view, I think that it’s true that they have better relations, because they are in contact with more kids. I wouldn’t like to disagree with the study, for sure, but it could be possible that one kid practiced a sport and this had no effect. Here we would be talking about kids that are obligated to do a sport or activity they do not like, or in case someone in the team or group practiced bully on them. Another problem, for example, could appear if the family didn’t have money enough to pay for that, and that is always a pity.

On the other hand, it sounds obvious that when you do sport you’re not thinking about homework, exams, etc. you are just running and jumping, and it’s better in kids, when it is nothing serious yet ( I mean when you don’t have to win a competition or be the best of the country doing what you do).

In conclusion, I would say that I liked this article because it talks about something I like, sport, and it is testing something that is useful for parents and also for their children.

 

 

 

Written by Claudia Maldonado