Exercise and Working Memory in School Children

Pediatric Exercise Science published research examining the role of exercise on the cognitive development in children including working memory (WM) and inattentiveness in a large sample of 2897 schoolchildren (7-10 years old).  Data was collected using the n-back task (2- and 3-back), the attentional network task (ANT) and parent questionnaire with information about the extracurricular exercise of their child and commuting to school.

The results indicated that:

• exercising twice per week or more was associated with higher working memory scores and inattentiveness scores at baseline when compared with exercising only once per week or less.
• active commuting for more than 50 min was associated with better 3-back scores at baseline, as compared with passive commuting.
• no consistent associations were found between physical activity and cognitive growth.

The researchers concluded that children with high levels of physical activity performed better in cognitive tasks.

Reference:  López-Vicente, M. et. al. (2016). Physical Activity and Cognitive Trajectories in Schoolchildren. Pediatric exercise science, 28(3), 431-438.

50 Sensory Motor Activities for Kids – This is an electronic book of 50 sensory motor activities that get children moving. This collection of creative, fun filled activities promote fundamental motor skills, sensory processing, motor planning and body awareness. The book is divided into three sections – Games to Play in Small Spaces (classroom or small room), Games to Play in Large Spaces (gymnasium or outdoors) and Games to Play with Bean Bags. The activities require simple equipment such as bean bags, hoops, rope, balls, etc.  FIND OUT MORE.

 

 

 

 

 

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New Ways to Play Candyland Including Exergaming

Playing board games with children offers learning opportunities to develop counting skills, color recognition, fine motor skills, self regulation and social skills.  Candyland is an all time classic.  It was created in 1948 by Eleanor Abbott, while she was recovering from polio and was tested by the children in the polio wards in the hospital.  The game was submitted to Milton Bradley and the rest is history!  Children seem to love this game and will play it over, over, over and over again……  You get it.  It gets a bit boring after awhile.  Here are new ideas to change up Candyland:

Use the cards only –  Use the cards for a scavenger hunt.  Turn over one card.  See if the child can race to touch an object in the room that is the same color.  Hide some of the cards around the room, gym or playground.  How quickly can the child find all the blue cards, all the red cards, etc?  Add in handwriting practice.  Turn a color card over.  Write a sentence with that color word in it.  Turn over three cards.  Write a sentence with all three color words included.  Make a category game.  Turn over a random color card.  Write down as many items as you can that are that color.

Adapt the board game to add a tactile component for children with visual impairments.  Read about how to do it at Paths to Literacy – Adapting Candyland for Players Who are Blind or Deaf Blind.

Add in exercise and physical activity – some “exergaming”.  Candy Game Exercises sneaks in some exercises and physical activity while practicing turn taking, color identification and visual perceptual skills. This download includes 30 exercise cards, 30 regular color cards and the special cards (6 for the older version and 7 for the new version). Use these cards instead of the traditional color cards that come with the Candy Land® game.  If you don’t have Candy Land®, there is a Candy Trail game included that you can print and use with the cards.  Find out more information.

 

Reference: National Toy Hall of Fame.  Candyland. Retrieved at http://ift.tt/2kVQ3oS on 2/16/17.

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Physical Exercise and Functional Outcomes in Children with ADHD

The Journal of Attention Disorders published a meta-analysis on the possible beneficial effects of exercise in alleviating ADHD functional outcomes in children.  After searching various databases, 10 studies for a total of 300 participants on the effects of physical exercise on motor skills and executive functions in children with ADHD were included.  The analysis revealed the following:

1.  exercise had a significant effect on functional outcomes, ie executive functions and motor skills, in children with ADHD 
2.  longer exercise intervention duration was consistently associated with larger effect sizes.
3.  effect sizes were not related to exercise intensity, mean age of participants, or gender distribution.

Reference:  Ruta Vysniauske, Lot Verburgh, Jaap Oosterlaan, and Marc L. Molendijk. The Effects of Physical Exercise on Functional Outcomes in the Treatment of ADHD: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Attention Disorders 1087054715627489, first published on February 9, 2016 doi:10.1177/1087054715627489

 

 

Get Moving Flashcards – Get Moving Flashcards is a collection of 5 physical activity breaks (jogging in place, marching, squats, jumping jacks and trunk twists) randomly placed between flash cards. Basically, the slides will move along, the child says the letter out loud, air writes the letter or writes the letter on paper. Anytime a movement slide shows up the child performs that movement.  FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION.

 

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Exercise Rocks!

Make some exercise rocks!  Here the kids thought of some exercises and we wrote them on smooth rocks with metallic pens.  Try these activities:

1.  Scavenger Hunt:  hide the rocks outdoors.  When you find a rock perform 10 of the exercises on the rock and then return it to start.  The person or team with the most rocks/exercises completed is the winner.

2.  Brain Breaks:  After you make the exercise rocks, give them to the teacher to keep in a bowl on the desk.  Need a quick break, grab a rock and get moving.

3.  Make as a Gift:  Do you know someone who is an exercise fanatic?  This would make a cute gift to give them.

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New Updates on Evidence-Based Practice for Individuals with Autism - Includes Exercise!

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has created an amazing report updating evidence based practices for children, youth, and young adults with autism.   This document is over 100 pages and it goes into extensive detail on how each evidence based practice was included. 

I have perused the document and there is relevant information for all pediatric therapists who work with children with autism.  I highly recommend that you read the document for yourself to help guide your treatment sessions which can be downloaded here - http://autismpdc.fpg.unc.edu/sites/autismpdc.fpg.unc.edu/files/2014-EBP-Report.pdf.  There are excellent charts that summarize what evidence based practices are suitable for specific age groups. 

Here are the highlights related to OT/PT for children with autism:

1. Exercise is now included as an evidence based practice in helping children with autism.  According to the matrix table, the participants in an exercise group reported improvements in behavior (ages 0-14 years), school readiness (0-14 years), academic (0-5 years) and motor (6-14 years).
2. Prompting, Reinforcement, Task Analysis, Technology Aided, Instruction and Intervention, Time Delay, Video Modeling and Visual Support all were labeled evidence based practices where improvements were reported in motor areas ages 0-5 years old and 6-14 years old.
3. Sensory Diets and Sensory Integration and Fine Motor Interventions were listed as other focused intervention practices with some support (were excluded from evidence based practices for autism due to insufficient evidence).

Reference:  Wong, C., Odom, S. L., Hume, K. Cox, A. W., Fettig, A., Kucharczyk, S., … Schultz, T. R. (2013). Evidence-based practices for children, youth, and young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, Autism Evidence-Based Practice Review Group. This report is available online at http://autismpdc.fpg.unc.edu/sites/autismpdc.fpg.unc.edu/files/2014-EBP-Report.pdf

Classroom Activity Posters

Classroom Activity Posters is a collection of 16 exercise activities, 4 large posters and a brief, simple video demonstration of each exercise. The posters are divided into four groups: posture, alerting, ready to work and focus/balance. All of the exercises are performed in standing.  Find out more.

Exercise and Type 2 Diabetes

Pediatrics published a systemic research review of a quantitative estimate of the effectiveness of exercise training on fasting insulin and insulin resistance in children and adolescents.

The following results were reported:

• a small to moderate effect was found for exercise training on fasting insulin and improving insulin resistance in youth.

The researchers concluded that the results support the use of exercise training in the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes.

Reference:  Michael V. Fedewa, Nicholas H. Gist, Ellen M. Evans,and Rod K. Dishman. Exercise and Insulin Resistance in Youth: A Meta-Analysis Pediatrics 2014; 133:1 e163-e174; published ahead of print December 2, 2013, doi:10.1542/peds.2013-2718

Children Need 60-80 Minutes of Exercise Per Day

BMC Medicine published research on exercise in younger children (less than 10 years old) and the risk of developing cardiovascular disease.  The researchers found that there was gender differences therefore it was recommended that:

• boys under 6 years old need 70 minutes of exercise per day
• older boys need at least 80 minutes per day
• girls of all ages needed around 60 minutes of exercise per day. 

Need ideas for physical activity for children?  Check out 50 Sensory Motor Activities for Kids!
Sneak in physical activity during small breaks or transitions with Mini Movement Breaks.

Reference:  Jiménez-Pavón D, Konstabel K et al.  Physical activity and clustered cardiovascular disease risk factors in young children: a cross-sectional study (The IDEFICS study).  BMC Medicine 2013; 11: 172. DOI: 10.1186/1741-7015-11-172.

Exercise Program for Non Ambulatory Children with CP

Clinical Rehabilitation published research on 35 children with a gross motor classification system levels IV-V who participated in a 6 week exercise program.  The subjects were randomly placed to participate in a stationary bike group, treadmill group or control group.

After the 6 week intervention significant differences were found in GMFM-88D scores between the bike group and the control group, and the treadmill group and the control group. No significant differences were found for GMFM-66 or GMFM-88E scores between the bike group and control group, or the treadmill group and control group, although improvements were noted for both exercise groups. No improvements were seen during the follow up period.

The researchers concluded that exercising on a bike or a treadmill may produce short term improvements in gross motor skills for children GMFCS Levels IV-V.

 Reference: Elizabeth Bryant, Terry Pountney, Heather Williams, and Natalie Edelman Can a six-week exercise intervention improve gross motor function for non-ambulant children with cerebral palsy? A pilot randomized controlled trial Clin Rehabil February 2013 27: 150-159, first published on July 30, 2012 doi:10.1177/0269215512453061

Free Personalized Physical Activity and Nutrition Program

Found about this free opportunity on Twitter.  The National Center of Physical Activity and Disability (NCPAD) is providing individuals with mobility limitations, chronic health conditions and physical disabilities a free, web based, personalized physical activity and nutrition program. According to the website, each individual registers for the program and answers several questions about themselves. Then they will provide you with exercises and resources matched to your needs over a 14 week period. Each week builds upon the previous week. You even get access to coaches throughout the 14 weeks. All for free!

I have not tried this out but seems like it may be a great option for teenagers and up to try to stay active. Would love to hear if anyone has tried this program out...

You can get all the information and register at NCPAD.

Adolescents with Cerebral Palsy and Exercise Levels

According to the Summer issue of Pediatric Physical Therapy only 9.4% of adolescents with cerebral palsy (126 males and 104 females) studied participate in weekly levels of moderate physical activity. The percentage was 11.4% of the sample participated in weekly levels of vigorous physical activity. Gross Motor Function Classification System Levels did have a significant effect on light to moderate exercise. Females stretched more than males.

The researchers recommended that pediatric physical therapists need to encourage exercise programs for adolescents with cerebral palsy.

Read blog post on exercise and cerebral palsy.

Additional research indicates that function declines in adolescents with cerebral palsy.

Reference: Brunton, Laura K. BKin, MSc; Bartlett, Doreen J. PT, PhD Description of Exercise Participation of Adolescents With Cerebral Palsy Across a 4-Year Period Pediatric Physical Therapy: Summer 2010 - Volume 22 - Issue 2 - pp 180-187 doi: 10.1097/PEP.0b013e3181db8aaa