Behaviors That Impact Impulsivity

Research findings published in the September issue of Pediatrics look at the effects of "Movement Behaviors" on impulsivity in more than 4500 children, ages 8-11. These guidelines (The Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Youth) aren't really all about movement; they are evidence-based recommendations that children 5 to 13 years old:

• Accumulate a minimum of 60 minutes per day of moderate to vigorous physical activity; and
• Spend not more than 2 hours a day on recreational screen time; and
• Get between 9 and 11 hours sleep each night.

The researchers were interested in looking at whether these behaviors would have an impact on impulsivity, which is a core characteristic in attention disorders as well as certain behavior disorders and emotional dysregulation. They began with the hypothesis that children who met all of the recommendations for these parameters would show less impulsivity than those who did not. 

They looked at various combinations of physical activity, sleep, and screen time and determined that 30 percent of the children did not meet any of the recommendations. Less than 5 percent of the children met all the guidelines. The researchers found that the most important factors in whether children demonstrated reduced impulsivity (and its positive counterpart, perseverance) was sufficient sleep and limited screen time. Physical activity seemed to have much less of an impact.

 The researchers note, "Our findings highlight that sleep and [screen time] interact in a fashion that provides unique benefits compared with meeting either movement behavior alone and may be especially clinically relevant to target concurrently in interventions, given a small percentage of children meet these movement behavior guidelines."

They conclude that while physical activity may not impact impulsivity, it has other important benefits. Furthermore, strategies to limit recreational screen time while encouraging early bedtimes and sufficient sleep, can help avoid and treat impulsivity related disorders. 

Photo by Alfred Rowe on Unsplash

Before School Exercise to Build Bodies and Minds

We all know that exercise is good for kids. But we often think about opportunities for exercise as something that happens after school or on weekends. A growing national (and now international) program, now in about 3,000 schools, BOKS (Build Our Kids' Success), changes that paradigm with a before-school program of exercise, activity, and skill-building that has been shown to improve both the physical and mental health of the children who participate.

Training from BOKS, an affiliate of the non-profit Reebok Foundation, is free and the start-up costs for schools (things like balls, jump ropes, and cones) are minimal. Trainings take place at several locations around the country or ,virtually, anywhere they are desired.

According the BOKS website, a typical one hour before-school session starts with check-in and free play. There is then a brief review of the lesson plan for the day and the "skill of the week". Next will generally come a running activity, which is a key part of every session, followed by practice of specific skills (things like push-ups or squats) through game playing. Classes end with a game designed to promote teamwork, and then the students stretch and cool down and discuss nutrition tips with the trainer.

While this all sounds like fun, the most impressive part of the program is the impact it has on the physical and emotional well-being of the children who participate. As noted in a recent piece in The New York Times, researchers looked at 707 students in 24 Massachusetts schools, ranging from kindergarten through eighth grade. They all participated in a BOKS program for 12 weeks - some students twice a week and some three times weekly. The study found  that both the two and three times per week participants showed improvement in student engagement, positive affect, and vitality/energy measures. Changes in body mass index (BMI) were apparent in those students participating three times weekly, but not those who participated only twice each week.

If you are interested in implementing the BOKS program in your child's school, you can find the information to do so on the BOKS website.

Exercise Continues to Top the List of Learning Strategies

Memory and exercise have come up plenty of times in our work with students here at The Yellin Center, and we’ve written about them quite a bit, too. Only recently, though, have studies begun investigating the ways that exercise can help jump-start the parts of your brain that make memorization of academic material more achievable. Back in 2012 we reviewed research that debunked the myth of the “brain training” apps, which unfortunately continue to be popular among folks who want to improve their cognitive functioning. Since then, we’ve always been on the lookout for evidence-based strategies that can really make an impact on how kids and adults learn. Exercise began popping up more and more often as a crucial part of keeping our bodies, our brains, and our minds healthy, and it was only a matter of time before researchers started to look more closely at the relationship between movement and learning. Over the last few months we’ve seen a lot of research pointing to the positive effect of exercise on memory.

Exercising after studying, for example, can increase your test scores on an exam taken the next day. Light yoga combined with meditation improves communication in the parts of your brain concerned with memory and attention. Participating in moderate exercise four times a week can boost scores on a standardized memory test. Even exercising lightly while you’re learning new information can help you encode, or store, that information for later use. It’s not yet clear exactly how exercise leads to improved memory and attention, but at least one study found that moderate exercise leads to neurogenesis, or the growth of brain cells in the parts of your brain that deal with memory. Light activity, rather than an intense workout, may stimulate your brain just enough to prime it for learning.
We already know that exercise is important for keeping our bodies and minds healthy, but now we have an even better reason to get in those weekly 150 minutes – it’s one more evidence-based strategy for helping students learn new information. So what do we do with all this great data? Here are a few suggestions for incorporating some real-world “brain training” into your schedule:

• Find a movement that’s fun for you, such as walking with friends through the park, riding your bike, or skateboarding.

• Take movement breaks while you’re learning something new or studying for an exam. A five minute dance party is sure to get your blood pumping.

• Don’t shy away from moving during learning, either. A treadmill or stationary bicycle with a book stand might work for some, while listening to material with headphones while jogging, riding a bike, or taking a brisk walk could be more enjoyable for others. When outside, always keep the volume at a level where you can still hear what’s going on around you.

• Make the most of gym class and recess, and don’t worry so much about improving specific athletic skills. Spend the time running around and having fun. 

• Combine movement with mindfulness, meditation, or light yoga. Focusing on our own minds and sitting with our thoughts and feelings can help us get the most out of movement. 

• Keep it up! Finding activities that are enjoyable now will help kids stay active and healthy as they grow.

Studies Show that Yoga is Beneficial to Kids in Multiple Ways

Yoga has become one of the most popular forms of exercise in the country. You’d be hard-pressed to find a gym that doesn’t offer at least one yoga class, and here in New York City people walk around with rolled-up yoga mats slung from their shoulders as casually as they’d carry a purse or briefcase. Advocates of yoga say that it improves physical strength and flexibility while providing a sense of calm that too few of us enjoy in our fast-paced lives. But did you know that numerous studies have demonstrated that yoga can be beneficial to youngsters, too? Youth yoga programs have been shown to improve student self-esteem and self-image, behavior, and even academic performance!

Your blogger was recently interviewed for a blog post for YoGanesh, a wonderful yoga studio just blocks from The Yellin Center, about the many ways yoga can benefit kids. We noted that physical, emotional, and behavioral factors can play huge roles in academic well-being and that research shows that practicing yoga can have amazingly wide-reaching benefits when it comes to improving children’s behavior, mental/emotional health, and cognitive function. You can see the full interview and the references for current research when you visit the blog. And please take a moment to visit their website to learn more about yoga and young people. Namaste!

photo courtesy CC: Heidelknips

A Weighty Problem

A disturbing new study raises concerns about the impact of type-2 diabetes on learning and cognition. Dr. Antonio Convit, of NYU Langone Medical Center and his colleagues looked at two groups of obese teenagers -- 18 with type 2 diabetes and 18 who, although also obese, did not show any signs of the disease. The researchers found that the diabetic teens had statistically significant lower scores in tests of attention, memory, and planning. Of interest, the two groups of teens were matched in terms of socio-economic status, sex, grade, and ethnicity.

Scientists have long known that some adults with diabetes have cognitive changes, but have not been certain if these are related to their diabetic condition alone or if they are part of the long term consequences of having diabetes, including heart disease that can impair circulation to the brain. Since the teens Convit and his colleagues studied did not have the long term consequences of diabetes, the research team believes that the very existence of type 2 diabetes can impact brain circulation.

The good news is that Convit points out that it is not clear that the brain changes he and his colleagues observed are significant or permanent and he notes that exercise can go a long way to improve the insulin resistance that leads to type 2 diabetes. Furthermore, the resilience of younger brains may allow individuals whose brains have been impacted by type 2 diabetes to improve their function over time. If ever there was a reason to get your kids to put down the chips and get off the couch, this may be it!

Get Off the Sofa!

Parents of college students have one more reason to try to get their sons and daughters off the sofa this summer. Even when the economy makes summer jobs problematic, sitting around while on vacation can not only impact a parent's patience, but the student's grades as well.

A study out of Saginaw State University in Michigan,  presented at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine looked at 266 undergraduate students and found a link between higher grade point averages and at least 20 minutes of vigorous activity each day. The study controlled for factors such as gender, race, and academic variables (including major, since the researchers posited that majors in fields such as kinesiology would be more likely to be active). The researchers determined that those students who met the higher activity levels had GPAs .4 higher than those who did not exercise.

Studies of younger students have shown the correlation between exercise and academic performance, but the focus on fitness in college students has not been looked at as extensively. We looked last year at the impact of fitness on a group of over one million military recruits in Sweden and on a relatively small group of American 7th grade girls, both of which groups showed distinct correlations between physical activity and cognitive performance.  This new study reinforces what research has told us about other age groups and hopefully will inspire college students - and all students - to get moving, both this summer and all year round.

Photo Credit: Mike Baird at Flickr.com

Exercising Our Minds

On an almost daily basis, we are learning more and more about the benefits of physical activity and fitness. This week, articles in two prominent scientific journals underscore the relationship between physical activity and brain activity.

First, a study that appears in the December 8 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences describes the impact of physical fitness and cognitive function in more than 1.2 million young men doing military service in Sweden. When compared with less fit peers, physically fit young men performed better on measures of logical thinking and verbal comprehension. They found that cognitive function in identical twins correlated with fitness. Also, cognitive function improved in young men as their level of fitness increased.

Next, a study in the Journal of Mind Brain and Education examined the impact of 30 minutes of physical education on 40 seventh grade girls. After 30 minutes of aerobic activity, the students showed increased ability to ignore distractions and remain on task. The authors quote an earlier study that found that only 6% of American high schools offer daily PE classes. As schools face increasing pressure to prepare students for high stakes testing, PE is often sacrificed. The sad irony is that students actually learn more in classes they attend after participating in physical activity.

At the same time that physical activity is diminishing, screen time is on the rise. There is evidence that American students spend more than 5 hours/day in front of a computer or television screen. We are also seeing a proliferation of computer-based therapeutic interventions for enhancing focus and executive function. Some of these are expensive and time consuming. As parents consider these and other treatments to help their children increase their focus and academic performance, I urge them to start with the simple and natural interventions. Let’s not forget about sleep, nutrition, and EXERCISE.

(Photo credit)

Increased Physical Activity and Sleep Latency

• Many children have difficulty falling asleep.


• Active children tend to have less trouble falling asleep.


• Children who tend to sit around a great deal have more trouble falling asleep.

Sleep latency refers to the amount of time it takes to fall asleep once you get into bed. Increased sleep latency, or difficulty falling asleep, is a common problem in childhood. Researchers investigating sleep latency in 519 normal 7 year old children recently published their findings in the July 24th issue of the Archives of Diseases of Childhood. The median values were 10 hours for sleep duration and 26 minutes for sleep latency. 54 children, 10.5% who reportedly had difficulty falling asleep, had a mean latency of 41 minutes. Sleep latency was longest during the summer. Increased physical activity was associated with decreased sleep latency while increased sedentary behavior was associated with increased sleep latency.

If your child is having trouble getting to sleep, encouraging more daytime physical activity may be helpful.