Fitness and Brain Health for Kids
The physical fitness and brain fitness connection is evident even at age 4.
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In looking at the connection between fitness and brain health for kids, researchers discovered that 4- to 6-year-old children who walked farther on a timed walking test did better on cognitive exams and other measures of brain function than less fit peers.
“Preschool children with higher estimated cardiorespiratory fitness had higher scores on academic ability tasks related to general intellectual abilities as well as their use of expressive language,” said lead study author Shelby A. Keye, doctoral student in kinesiology and community health at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “They had better performance on computerized tasks requiring attention and multitasking skills, and they showed the potential for faster processing speeds and greater resource allocation in the brain when completing these computerized tasks.”
The study, conducted with 59 preschool-aged children, was associative and did not establish a causal link between cardiorespiratory fitness and cognitive abilities.
The study appeared in the Journal of Clinical Medicine (2021; 10 [4]).
See also: Fitter Kids Have More Brain Gray Matter
Shirley Eichenberger-Archer, JD, MA
Shirley Archer, JD, MA, is an internationally acknowledged integrative health and mindfulness specialist, best-selling author of 16 fitness and wellness books translated into multiple languages and sold worldwide, award-winning health journalist, contributing editor to Fitness Journal, media spokesperson, and IDEA's 2008 Fitness Instructor of the Year. She's a 25-year industry veteran and former health and fitness educator at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, who has served on multiple industry committees and co-authored trade books and manuals for ACE, ACSM and YMCA of the USA. She has appeared on TV worldwide and was a featured trainer on America's Next Top Model.
