Practice exercise regularly improves cognitive functions of children, stimulating their memory and concentration and positively affect their academic performance, according to the results of new research from the American Academy of Pediatrics, in which involved 220 school children aged between seven to nine, who conducted an exercise program after school.
The aim of the researchers was to analyze the impact of physical activity in the brain and in executive control, including the ability to avoid distraction and adopt habits to maintain attention, working memory and cognitive flexibility in preadolescent children.
Various tests were carried out children to assess their aerobic capacity and their brain function, and divided them into two groups at random. The members of one group started with an exercise program that consisted of making enjoyable physical activity and appropriate to improve their motor skills and aerobic capacity, two hours every day after school.
The study lasted nine months, at the end of which returned to perform the same physical and cognitive tests to children, and found that those who had completed the exercise program, and improve their physical condition, had significantly better scores on cognitive test and in which evaluated the executive function, especially in those valued their ability to avoid irrelevant information and focusing on schoolwork and to store knowledge, and cognitive flexibility.