Exercise and Academic Performance

The New York Times recently published an article about How Physical Fitness May Promote School Success. This article discusses a new study that finds that physically fit children absorb and retain new information more effectively than children who are out of shape.

The article states:

Parents and exercise scientists have known for a long time that physical activity helps young people to settle and pay attention in school or at home, with salutary effects on academic performance. A representative study, presented in May at the American College of Sports Medicine, found that fourth- and fifth-grade students who ran around and otherwise exercised vigorously for at least 10 minutes before a math test scored higher than children who had sat quietly before the exam.

The article goes beyond what we typically know on this topic:

 It is found that when the recall involved the more difficult type of learning — memorizing without intermittent testing — the children who were in better aerobic condition significantly outperformed the less-fit group, remembering about 40 percent of the regions’ names accurately, compared with barely 25 percent accuracy for the out-of-shape kids.

We recently wrote a blog post about homework tips for kids with ADHD. One of the tips we give to parents is for the child to take short physical activity breaks while doing homework. The study cited in the New York Times article provides evidence that this type of strategy is beneficial not just for children with attention difficulties.