Want your kids to do well at school this year? Get them physically active!
By Australian Physiotherapy Association
G
etting kids away from screens and being physically active is not only good for their mental and physical health, it also boosts their academic prowess. So says two separate research papers—the Copenhagen Consensus Statement 1, which gathered research from a variety of academic disciplines to determine the effects of physical activity in children and youth, and the Active Brains study2 released in November by the University of Granada. It is well known that physical activity across all age groups improves cardiovascular fitness and reduces the risk of developing a range of chronic illnesses, including Type 2 diabetes and osteoarthritis. However, the link between physical activity and cognitive function is less well known, particularly in relation to the academic outcomes of young Australians.
The Copenhagen research consensus noted that moderate physical activity has acute benefits to brain function, cognition and scholastic performance in children and youth, and importantly, that time taken away from academic lessons in favour of physical activity has been shown not to come at the cost of scholastic performance. The Active Brains study went a step further, confirming that physical fitness in children—specifically their aerobic capacity and motor ability—is associated with a greater volume of grey matter in areas of the brain associated with learning, language processing and reading. National chair of the Australian Physiotherapy Association Sports group, Holly Brasher, agrees unequivocally, saying, “When kids and teens are physically fit and active—whether that be through continued next page.....