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Running Head: PHYSICAL EXERCISE AND COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING IN CHILDREN 1
PHYSICAL EXERCISE AND COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING IN CHILDREN 4
Physical Exercise and Cognitive Functioning in Children
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Thesis statement
The purpose of this study is to determine extend at which physical exercise help in the development of a healthy cognitive functions of brain in children and adolescents and illustrate how the same facts are the also true in both adolescents and children and will reinforce the importance of physical exercises for the optimal and healthy development of the brain and growth in children and adolescents too. The proper development of the brain cells and active cognitive functioning of the adults is tagged on individual’s frequency in physical exercise. Physical exercises results to increased brain capacity, memory capacity and brain cells growth. It also stresses on the importance of physical exercise on the optimal development of the brains in the children and the adolescents. The results of the current study shows that physical activities positively impact on the attention, the neuroplasticity and intellectual development in the children and adolescence. It also shows that physical activity for example Physical Exercises (PE) classes and recess periods in schools and curriculum are well intended and positively impact on the health of the children in school. The results reveal that physical exercises affects the growth and development of brain in children. It was observed that if the brain growth in children was activated to full capacity, it will have a long lasting effect on the children even in their adulthood thus reducing pronouncement of the symptoms of dementia, alchemizes and memory loss as they age.
Introduction
Importance of physical Exercise on the Healthy Cognitive Development
Studies have shown that physical exercise help in the rebuilding of the brain cells, activates the development of brain to full potential and also heals the cognitive functioning of the brain in the adults. This findings positively relates with cognition in psychology where by a significant change in the brain physical brain capacity, memory and increase in the cells occurs due to regular and efficient physical exercises. In this paper, my major focus will be on the importance of physical exercise on the ability to be attentive, which is important in the children regulating the cognitive functioning of their brain and also promoting further development of the children and learning (Diamond, 2015). This article will discuss neuroscience aspects that support the fact that physical exercise is important for the development of brain in children and adolescents. It is also important in ensuring the renewal and growth of healthy brain cells that positively impacts on the healthy cognitive functioning (Crova et al., 2014). The objective of the study was to answer the following research questions. One, does physical fitness and PA influence cognition, brain structure, brain function and learning in ages 5 to 13 and 14 to 16 years old? Two, are children in ages 5 to 13 and 14 to 16 years influenced by PA, sports, and physical exercise in terms of attention and academic performance?
In a study by Gomez (2013), the physical exercise was correlated with the level of cognition in the brain of the children participants and also in the adolescents. In most researches, such a correlation had been done on the elderly and adults to find out the effect of physical exercise on the healthy development of the brain that will help in cognition. Little research is done on the role of physical exercise on the children and adolescence, and its importance on the children and adolescents academics and in cognition functions as they grow. This articles therefore seeks to explore and explain the role of physical exercise on the children and adolescents cognition functioning and the academic importance. According to Golubavik (2012), the children and adolescents cognition levels was higher and they achieved better levels of attention in class after physical exercises. The author said that the long term effects of the physical exercise on the children and teens had not been studies (Donnelly et al., 2016). This therefore forms a very interesting are of study on which further research can be developed to help dig into the issues of long term effects of physical exercise on the children and teens, in relation to the ADD and ADHD (Ziereis & Jansen, 2015).. Our country is over-medicated and therefore, more natural options are needed to help resolve the many problems related to mental health issues instead of over-depending on the conventional medication, especially on the children and teens. The long term effects of medication on teens and children brains is currently not know. Studies prove that physical exercise are helpful in the promotion of the teens and children attention in the cognitive function as was revealed by the authors. Based on this article, this areas may be an important area that will need more time to investigate, research and educate our nation on the important findings for the betterment of the children and teen’s mental health and academics. The article by Gomez (2013) reveals that other studies on the neurocognitive functioning in children and teens have shown that physical exercise plays a very important role in the growth and sustenance of healthy brain cells.
A study by Galubavik (2012) looked into the effect of physical exercise on the children with intellectual disabilities and its general effect on their cognitive functioning. This study based its study on two groups of children. One group had children with intellectual disability and the other group had children who were average or “typically developed children.” The author established that typically developed children scored high in the physical tests, and that there was a correlation between the degrees of intellectual disability in children to their of physical fitness. This raised a concern that if more people embraced physical exercises and become physically fit, would it increase their typical developed, cause healthy or higher intellectual skills in them among other skills? More research is therefore needed in this areas.
In another study by Tomporowski (2012), revealed that there was a significant correlation between physical exercises and intelligence, which resulted into health cognitive development and body structures in children. Most researches reveal that exercises helps in the development of the neuropathways and rebuilding the brain cells for its health development (Khan & Hillman, 2014). Therefore, physical exercise is an essential component for teens and children as they grow. Physical exercises therefore is a crucial factor in determining the children’s future. Some studies reveal that exercise facilitates specific types of the cognitive functioning in children. The executive functions of children appear to be particularly sensitive to the level of physical exercise interventions (Tomporowski, 2012).
According to Kraft (2012), there is an increasing evidence that physical activity directly and significant impacts on the cognitive function of the child. This studies was done on both humans and animals and proved that physical exercise triggered the “neuroplasticity,” which increased the cognitive functioning in the participant. The article details the science of neurology that is behind testing and physical exercise and how it changes the brain volume and cause development of new brain cells. This information specifically explains the actual science behind the theory of the importance of physical exercise on children and teens. Physical exercise is not only linked to health physical growth but also on mental health due to its ability to increase brain neuroplasticity, which is very important on children as they grow and develop their brain into adulthood (Hillman et al., 2014). In a study done by Hogan (2013) on 13 and 14 year olds physical performance in “fit” and “unfit” groups and also completion of the “modified Erikson flanker test,” it was found that both groups had higher levels of “alpha” thus attention was high after the adolescents completed the physical exercise. Many schools are taking recess away, but they should come to the realization that exercise is just as important to learning, testing and academics. Physical activity is essential for healthy and normal brain growth and functioning in children and can be detrimental to their futures if not taken seriously. According to Etneir (2013), there was a common correlations between exercise and physical activity, which have been found to be similar to the other articles found in proving that physical exercise does have an effect on cognition and can help improve and promote healthy brain development and intelligence (Khan & Hillman, 2014).
Methods
The population of the study was the school-age children of age 5 to 13 years and teenagers of age ranging from 14 to 16 years in sixteen south Connecticut state schools. This range of the age was chosen in order to narrow the population size and focus within the school age and adolescents’ age. From the 16 schools, 200 students were chosen randomly considering the age groups range and gender balance (100 male and 100 female). This was considered in order to bring less interferences between the puberty stage changes and the physical and cognitive changes in adolescents different from children. The control group had 50 students which was also divided into half considering gender balance in each group. In this experimental study, parameters which were measured to answer research question one included the cognitive functions, brain structure and learning abilities of children. In the focus on research question two, measure of attention in children and standardized academic tests. Grades were excluded due to their natural subjectivity and biasness and that they varied from one teacher to the other.
Every child in the experiments were noted and recorded by name and the group they belong (control or experimental) considering their involvement in the physical activities from the previous Physical Exercise (PE) sessions report of active involvement. The active students in each group were noted, the less active and the dormant students in the PE. The brain cognition functionalities were analyzed in all the students using structured cognition activities like speed of answering questions, accuracy of picking items, accuracy of determining number of certain marks and labeling items were used in the experiments. The brain structures development and growth was done using ultrasound devices to determine the level of development of the brain capacity or volume in the schools clinics. The data collected were fed into the Research Electronic Data Capture database Version 4.14.5. The forms obtained from the REDCap were used to extract relevant data and was verified. The results obtained were grouped depending on the dependent variables and by design. Each research question was considered consistently. Details from each participants that included physical characteristics of the participants, cognitive functions and brain development and growth parameters were tabulated.
References
Crova, C., Struzzolino, I., Marchetti, R., Masci, I., Vannozzi, G., Forte, R., & Pesce, C. (2014). Cognitively challenging physical activity benefits executive function in overweight children. Journal of sports sciences, 32(3), 201-211.
Diamond, A. (2015). Effects of physical exercise on executive functions: going beyond simply moving to moving with thought. Annals of sports medicine and research, 2(1), 1011.
Donnelly, J. E., Hillman, C. H., Castelli, D., Etnier, J. L., Lee, S., Tomporowski, P., … & Szabo-Reed, A. N. (2016). Physical activity, fitness, cognitive function, and academic achievement in children: a systematic review. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 48(6), 1197.
Drollette, E. S., Scudder, M. R., Raine, L. B., Moore, R. D., Saliba, B. J., Pontifex, M. B., & Hillman, C. H. (2014). Acute exercise facilitates brain function and cognition in children who need it most: an ERP study of individual differences in inhibitory control capacity. Developmental cognitive neuroscience, 7, 53-64.
Etneir, J. (2013). Cognitive measures related to exercise and physical activity. Measurement in sport and exercise psychology. 179
Golubović, Š., Maksimović, J., Golubović, B., & Glumbić, N. (2012). Effects of exercise on physical fitness in children with intellectual disability. Research in developmental disabilities, 33(2), 608-614.
Gomez, C. 2013). The relationship between the brain, cognition and exercise. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering,73(12-B)(E).
Hillman, C. H., Pontifex, M. B., Castelli, D. M., Khan, N. A., Raine, L. B., Scudder, M. R., … & Kamijo, K. (2014). Effects of the FITKids randomized controlled trial on executive control and brain function. Pediatrics, 134(4), e1063-e1071.
Hogan, M. (2013). The interactive effects of physical fitness and acute aerobic exercise on electrophysiological coherence and cognitive performance in adolescents. Experimental Brain Research, 229(1), 85-96.
Khan, N. A., & Hillman, C. H. (2014). The relation of childhood physical activity and aerobic fitness to brain function and cognition: a review. Pediatric exercise science, 26(2), 138-146.
Kraft, E. (2012). Cognitive function, physical activity, and aging: possible biological links and implications for multimodal interventions. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 19(1-2), 248-263.
Lubans, D., Richards, J., Hillman, C., Faulkner, G., Beauchamp, M., Nilsson, M., … & Biddle, S. (2016). Physical activity for cognitive and mental health in youth: a systematic review of mechanisms. Pediatrics, e20161642.
Rabipour, S., Miller, D., Taler, V., Messier, C., & Davidson, P. (2016). Physical and cognitive exercise in ageing. In Handbook of Gerontology Research Methods (pp. 33-58). Routledge.
Tomporowski, P. D., Naglieri, J. A., & Lambourne, K. (2012). 20 Exercise Psychology and Children’s Intelligence. The Oxford Handbook of Exercise Psychology, 409.
Van den Berg, V., Saliasi, E., de Groot, R. H., Jolles, J., Chinapaw, M. J., & Singh, A. S. (2016). Physical activity in the school setting: cognitive performance is not affected by three different types of acute exercise. Frontiers in psychology, 7, 723.
Ziereis, S., & Jansen, P. (2015). Effects of physical activity on executive function and motor performance in children with ADHD. Research in developmental disabilities, 38, 181-191.
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