Journal Article10.1177/0031512515627527
Improving Children's Coordinative Skills and Executive Functions The Effects of a Football Exercise Program
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TL;DR: The football group at post-test showed significantly larger gains than the sedentary group on measures of agility, visuo-spatial working memory, attention, planning and inhibition, which shed light on the issue to plan structured sport activities as a natural and enjoyable way to improve cognitive skills.
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Abstract: Recent studies have focused on the positive influence of regular physical activity on executive functioning in children. Coordinative skills (agility) and executive functions (updating, attention, inhibition and planning processes) were investigated in children before and after 6 months of a Football Exercise Program compared to a control group of sedentary peers. The participants were 44 children aged 8.8 years: Group 1 comprised 24 children in a football (i.e., soccer) exercise program and Group 2 comprised 20 sedentary children. At pre-test and post-test, coordinative skills and executive functions were measured. After the Football Exercise Program, there were significant differences between sport and sedentary groups in coordinative skills and executive functions. The football group at post-test showed significantly larger gains than the sedentary group on measures of agility, visuo-spatial working memory, attention, planning and inhibition. Findings shed light on the issue to plan structured sport activities as a natural and enjoyable way to improve cognitive skills.
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Citations
Effects of physical activity interventions on cognitive and academic performance in children and adolescents: a novel combination of a systematic review and recommendations from an expert panel
Amika S. Singh,Amika S. Singh,Emi Saliasi,Emi Saliasi,Vera van den Berg,Vera van den Berg,Léonie Uijtdewilligen,Renate H. M. de Groot,Jelle Jolles,Lars Bo Andersen,Richard Bailey,Yu Kai Chang,Adele Diamond,Ingegerd Ericsson,Jennifer L. Etnier,Alicia L. Fedewa,Charles H. Hillman,Terry McMorris,Caterina Pesce,Uwe Pühse,Phillip D. Tomporowski,Mai J. M. Chinapaw,Mai J. M. Chinapaw +22 more
TL;DR: There is strong evidence for beneficial effects of PA on maths performance, and recommendations focus on adequate control groups and sample size, the use of valid and reliable measurement instruments for physical activity and cognitive performance, measurement of compliance and data analysis.
430
Physical Activity and Cognitive Functioning of Children: A Systematic Review.
TL;DR: It is suggested that engaging in sports in late childhood positively influences cognitive and emotional functions, and the impact of sports on pre-adolescents’ cognitive functions is investigated.
385
Aerobic-Exercise and resistance-training interventions have been among the least effective ways to improve executive functions of any method tried thus far.
Adele Diamond,Daphne S. Ling +1 more
TL;DR: The overwhelming preponderance of evidence is that resistance training and aerobic exercise interventions have thus far generally not been successful in improving executive functions, and interventions used to try to prove that have generally met with disappointing results.
113
Associations of physical activity and gross motor skills with executive function in preschool children from low-income South African settings
Caylee J. Cook,Steven J Howard,Gaia Scerif,Rhian Twine,Kathleen Kahn,Kathleen Kahn,Shane A. Norris,Catherine E. Draper,Catherine E. Draper +8 more
TL;DR: Investigating the relationships between components of executive function (inhibition, shifting and working memory) and gross motor skills (locomotor skills and object control skills) in a sample of preschool children from urban and rural low-income settings in South Africa revealed that inhibition andWorking memory, but not shifting, were associated withgross motor skills.
108
The influence of exercise and physical fitness status on attention: a systematic review
Arilson Fernandes Mendonça de Sousa,André R. Medeiros,Sebastián Del Rosso,Matthew Stults-Kolehmainen,Daniel Boullosa +4 more
TL;DR: There is an association of aerobic exercise (acute and chronic) and aerobic fitness with attention and the dose and mechanisms by which different forms of physical activity and exercise may influence the development of different components of attention along the lifespan.
85
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