Water Intake and Cognitive Performance

With the weather getting warmer, parents and school staff need to remember to remind children to drink plenty of water. Not only will water hydrate their bodies it appears to effect cognitive performance as well.

Three articles from Appetite, report on the benefits of children drinking water and its effects on cognitive performance:

1. Edmonds and Jeffes reports that the children (6-7 yrs old) who drank more water showed improvements in thirst and happiness ratings, visual attention and visual search skills. No difference was found in visual motor or visual memory skills.

2. Edmonds and Bufford report that the children (7-9 years old) who drank more water again rated themselves less thirsty and showed improvements on visual attention tasks.

3. Benton and Burgess reported that when children (mean age 8 yrs 7 months) drank more water, recall was significantly better. There was no effect on the ability to sustain attention.

Easy, free, research based tip to tell your school staff today! Don't forget to remind them about increased physical activity time as well.

References: Caroline J. Edmonds, Ben Jeffes Does having a drink help you think? 6–7-Year-old children show improvements in cognitive performance from baseline to test after having a drink of water Appetite, Volume 53, Issue 3, December 2009, Pages 469-472

Caroline J. Edmonds, Denise Burford Should children drink more water?: The effects of drinking water on cognition in children Appetite, Volume 52, Issue 3, June 2009, Pages 776-779

David Benton, Naomi Burgess The effect of the consumption of water on the memory and attention of children Appetite, Volume 53, Issue 1, August 2009, Pages 143-146