BC Council for Families

by Cara Hykawy
Communications Assistant

Want to improve your child's grades?  Turns out the solution may be as simple as giving them more time for physical activity.  We know that keeping kids active is good for their health -- it just might be good for their math marks too.

A systematic literature review recently published in the Archives of Pediatrics&Adolescent Medicine indicates that there is a positive relationship between children's levels of physical activity and their performance in school. That is, the more exercise a child gets, the better their grades are.

The researchers point to several reasons behind the findings: exercise increases blood and oxygen flow to the brain, and regular exercise can help to reduce stress and improve mood, making children more receptive to learning.

The review, spearheaded by researcher Amika Singh of the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, looked at fourteen studies from the U.S.,  Canada, and South Africa which measured physical activity levels and academic achievement of students between six and eighteen years of age. The studies tracked student achievement  in the areas of reading, mathematics, world studies and history, over periods varying from eight weeks to more than five years.

This research comes at time when many schools in North America are under pressure to increase instructional time, often at the expense of physical education. Will additional instructional hours for subjects such as math, at a cost of time for physical activity, achieve the educational system's goal of improving student performance? This is a question which must be answered by further research.