London - If you want to improve your children’s reading, get them exercising.
Physically fit children have faster and more robust brain responses during reading, scientists claim.
The findings add to a growing body of research that finds strong links between fitness and healthy brain function.
The researchers said their findings did not prove higher fitness directly influenced reading ability, but they may explain why physical health seems to correspond so closely with better learning and understanding skills.
In the US study, children of varying levels of fitness wore an electrode cap to capture some of the electrical impulses associated with brain activity.
The readouts from the electrodes showed brain wave patterns that are associated with different tasks. For example, if you hear or read a word in a sentence that makes sense, certain brain waves will be less pronounced than if you read a nonsensical sentence.
The patterns shown in children who were more fit suggested they processed information more quickly than their peers.
Most importantly, the researchers said, the differences in brain activity corresponded to better reading performance and language comprehension in the fitter children.
Study leader Professor Charles Hillman, of the University of Illinois, said: “Our study shows that the brain function of fit kids is different, in the sense that they appear to be able to better allocate resources in the brain towards aspects of cognition that support reading comprehension.”
Writing in the journal Brain and Cognition, Professor Hillman added: “There is something different about fit kids.
“But more work must be done to tease out the causes.” - Daily Mail