Happy, successful students are active children

For many adults, memories of childhood are dominated by long, active recesses at school and after-school hours playing outdoors, building forts, riding bikes, and games like Kick the Can. Today, children’s lives are far more sedentary – during school and after – and it is taking a monstrous toll on their classroom experience.

A 2013 study found that 44% of school administrators reported a reduction or elimination of recess and PE in exchange for more class time. After school, that trend continues. According to a 2018 study, children spend 35% less time in outdoor independent play than their parents did as children.

That reduction in physical activity means today’s children are weaker than their predecessors. A 2013 study from the University of South Australia found children take 90 seconds longer to run a mile than it took children in the 1980s. The study found that cardiovascular endurance in children declined at a rate of 5% every ten years, and there is no indication that the situation has improved in the years since the study. Instead, we have every indication that it has worsened.

Furthermore, studies show that children’s core strength has been declining for the past 20 years. Ten-year-olds ability to perform a standard sit-up test fell dramatically over a 16 year period between 1998 and 2008 when sit-up measurements fell 2.6% a year. Worse, between 2008 and 2014, they fell 3.9% a year

All of this points directly to the effects of lots of sedentary behaviors.

It is easy to see the link between sedentary behavior and loss in physical fitness. But what is the link between the loss in physical fitness and the classroom? To understand that, you must first understand that there is a direct link between physical movement of the body and the development of the brain. Because of that connection, sedentary lives have everything to do with learning, behavior, and classroom success.

Movement is the foundation for all school essentials: whether it is academics or communication skills, social or emotional skills. Fundamentally, movement lays down the neural wiring necessary for self-regulation and learning, the keys to school success. This means increased movement can have a dramatic ripple effect on the classroom experience.

For example, in 2009, Orchard Grove Elementary School in Frederick MD was struggling with behavior challenges during recess, so their PE teacher started a running club to give the students a constructive outlet. Wildly popular, most of the students enrolled, as well as many teachers and the principal. Besides the expected improvement in fitness levels, Orchard Grove saw reading and math pass rates go up 10% with no changes to the curriculum. And, the principal went from seeing 7 children a day in her office after recess to only 3 a week.

Or consider Eagle Mountain Elementary School in Fort Worth where the principal tripled recess every day from 20 minutes to an hour. Though the teachers were concerned about the loss of instructional time, they quickly saw the benefit with less fidgeting and less tattling within the first month. And, by December, every class in the school was ahead of their academic schedule.

All of this means, getting kids active leads directly to improved learning, easier classroom management, fewer behavior referrals, and happier children who have a more productive day, simply because children’s brains need movement to learn where their bodies are in space, how to control those bodies, and how their body parts work together.

  • Children can’t move or control a pencil if they don’t know how long their arms are and how to manipulate their hands. They do not learn about their bodies by sitting.
  • Children can’t sit comfortably in a chair and attend to tasks if they don’t have strong core muscles. Children cannot build strong core muscles by sitting.
  • Children must learn how much space their bodies take up and the direction in which they are moving so they can effectively guide a pencil across the page. Children cannot learn about space and direction by sitting.
  • Children must learn how much force it takes to use a pencil, tag a friend, or open a heavy door. Children cannot understand force by sitting.

The list goes on.

What happens when children do not get the chance to move, missing out on these fundamental steps in development? Ask any teacher – they are seeing it every day. Kids who cannot sit comfortably in a chair or at circle time.  Kids who tag too hard or slam into walls. Kids who are in constant motion, arms and legs flailing against their chairs, desks, friends. It looks like poor behavior, but it is really the manifestation of too much sitting and not enough movement. Children will seek the movement they need and when we fail to fuel that need, they will seek it in other, less productive, ways.

In our uber-competitive culture, we have forgotten that today’s children are hardwired the same as prior generations, learning their bodies in the same way. We cannot speed this process up, and any attempt to try is ignoring basic child brain biology: children need to move to learn.

How can we get kids moving more in a culture that demands more and earlier academic learning? We can incorporate it into the classroom. We can do jumping jacks to count the answers to math problems, helping children learn the length of their limbs, how to move them with control, and how much force they feel as their feet hit the floor. We can toss sponge balls with partners to review social studies facts, supporting an understanding of space and direction. We can do squats while spelling words to help build core strength. We can take art and STEM projects outside and make them messy, big, full-body experiences. The bigger the movement, the bigger the benefit.

Learning and moving go hand in hand. When we make time for physical movement, children build a strong neural foundation on which to build classroom success.