Exercise Benefits on Children
By Brian Romero
Exercise provides some of the greatest health benefits for the developing human body. By exposing children to exercise, whether its aerobic, resistance training or mental exercises, it allows them to shape healthy and energetic brains and improve their structure and cognitive learning functions. It has been shown that mild to moderate exposure of different forms of exercise will provide these types of improvements in children.
An important structure within the brain that allows for better cognitive functioning is the white matter fasciculus. It is shown in a study by Professor Chaddock-Heyman that children with higher aerobic exercise fitness have stronger neural connectivity between their brain regions due to the secretion-promotion on the white matter structure in their brain. The higher the aerobic exercise fitness, the greater the volume of the bilateral hippocampus, which is in charge of learning memory abilities, and the higher the memory task scores. Exercise allows children to not only become healthier but it also helps to mature their brains and develop greater neuroplasticity.
Get your kids out, get them moving and learning new skills that challenge their capabilities!
Study on the influence of exercise on children’s cognitive learning ability. (2018). Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice. doi:10.12738/estp.2018.5.093