Children with good motor coordination are better off at school, especially in mathematics, writing and reading. This is stated by a study from the University of Leeds, published in the journal Psychological Science, which sought to demonstrate how practicing a sport that helps improve coordination helps to develop cognitive skills that can also be useful in the study of school subjects. We talk about this topic with Dr. Marco Nuara, pediatrician of San Pio X Humanitas.
Playing sports helps to make things better at school
In addition to being essential for health at all ages, new research suggests that physical activity can also help improve grades at school. University of Leeds research involved more than 300 children aged 4-11 years, who were asked to engage in motor tasks such as hitting a moving object with a bat and other exercises to assess hand-vision coordination. Scholars have tried to demonstrate how hitting an object in motion requires some useful cognitive skills in school subjects such as mathematics. Calculating reaction and movement times is in fact a skill that some scholars have traced to mathematical skills. It was not by chance that the children with the same age who were most successful at school, reading, writing and calculating were the most physically coordinated.
The importance of training the body and mind
According to experts, playing sport could have a positive impact on school performance. That’s why it’s important to support physically clumsy children with lessons and activities that train coordination.
In addition to promoting various cognitive skills, as the study argues, sport has a positive impact on teenagers’ ability to concentrate, keeps them away from video games and prevents physical and mental illnesses including anxiety and related distractions and obesity.
Team sports also help children and adolescents to be in a group and to establish satisfactory social relationships. Mind and body, in short, should be trained together, especially if we are talking about school-age children.
The opinion of Humanitas
“I take for granted the results of the study even though my personal experience is in contrast – commented Dr. Nuara – If for example my children had participated in the study the results could have been different. However, it is certainly important to cultivate and educate not only the mind of children, but also the body. “A “healthy mind in a healthy body” is not a recently minted motto. Numerous studies have shown a correlation between motor skills and attentive and mnemonic skills. Sport can help to exercise attention and help teach discipline. It is also a relief valve for children attending school eight hours a day. “Are there any sports that are specifically recommended?” – continued the pediatrician – I would like to start by saying that it is not important to practice a specific sport but to do sport activities: walking, cycling, outdoor games. In children it is better to prefer individual sports and exercises that stimulate the body symmetrically, that help to take the right posture and teach proper breathing. These include artistic gymnastics, martial arts, dance and swimming. Sport must be a pleasure, not an imposition. It should be a moment to vent rather than frustration. It is therefore advisable that the child chooses the sport”.
