Exercise may help children focus, and several weeks of it may help school results.

The review

1. 01

   Who took part

   4,593 primary school children aged 6 to 12 took part in 31 studies. Studies of children with mental or thinking disorders, nervous system diseases or brain injuries were left out.

2. 02

   What they did

   Some studies gave children one burst of exercise. Others ran regular exercise programmes over several weeks. In each study, the other group did no exercise or less.

3. 03

   What happened

   One burst of exercise helped focus, but not thinking skills or school results, though spelling alone improved in two studies. Several weeks of exercise helped thinking skills, school results and focus in one study, but not planning or impulse control. Results varied, quality was low, and certainty was not rated.

What the review found

1. HelpedFocus

   Children who did one burst of exercise focused better than those who did less.

   Pooled analysis of 6 studies with 616 people · vs children who did no or less exercise · ⚠ most studies had serious flaws; the studies disagreed a lot

2. No differenceGoals

   Children who did one burst of exercise were no better at school than those who did less.

   Pooled analysis of 4 studies with 941 people · vs children who did no or less exercise · ⚠ most studies had serious flaws

3. HelpedFocus

   Children who did regular exercise for several weeks were more focused than those who did less.

   Pooled analysis of 1 study with 299 people · vs children who did no or less exercise · ⚠ most studies had serious flaws

4. HelpedGoals

   Several weeks of regular exercise helped school results more than less did, but not in each subject.

   Pooled analysis of 3 studies with 565 people · vs children who did no or less exercise · ⚠ most studies had serious flaws

Source