Children Involved In Sports Activities Are Better Academically – Study

Parents who for one reason or the other have not enrolled their children for any sport may need to have a rethink as researchers can prove that children who engage in sports activities do better in school. So, if you need one more motivation to encourage your children into sports, here it is.

The Daily Mail reports:

Regular organized school sport helps children in their academic studies in years to come, a study has found.

The researchers said other ‘structured’ activities such as music or religious activities were not as beneficial for attention as taking part in a games lesson. The difference in academic ability was noticeable even at age ten, with those who had participated in sports since the start of junior school faring better than those who hadn’t.

The Canadian study, published in the American Journal of Health Promotion, looked at children aged six and then ten in the country’s kindergarten system.

Professor Linda Pagani, of the University of Montreal, said: ‘We worked with information provided by parents and teachers to compare kindergarteners’ activities with their classroom engagement as they grew up.

‘By the time they reached the fourth grade, kids who played structured sports were identifiably better at following instructions and remaining focused in the classroom.

‘There is something specific to the sporting environment – perhaps the unique sense of belonging to a team to a special group with a common goal – that appears to help kids understand the importance of respecting the rules and honouring responsibilities.’

Researchers began studying 2,694 Canadian children around the age of six, with teachers filled in questionnaires about their behaviour in school.

Meanwhile, the children’s parents were interviewed by phone or in person about their home life. The exercise was the repeated four years later to test what impact the behaviour had.

Prof Pagani said: ‘Our goal was to answer two questions: firstly, does participation in extracurricular activities in kindergarten predict fourth grade self discipline, and secondly, do kindergarten self discipline characteristics predict fourth grade participation in sports?’

‘Children who were involved in sports at kindergarten, or in fact who were involved in any kind of structured activity, were likely to be involved in teams sports by age ten.

‘However, involvement in unstructured activities at kindergarten had no bearing on the child’s future.

‘Across the board, we found children who had better behaviour in the kindergarten class were more likely to be involved in sport by age ten.

‘Nonetheless, we found those children who were specifically involved in team sports at kindergarten scored higher in self regulation by the time they reached the fourth grade.’

The researchers believe sporting activities and attention skills go hand in hand and can be addressed simultaneously in school planning.

Researchers said the results should be encouraging for schools looking to cut childhood obesity rates and low attainment in schools.