Acute Effects of Aerobic Physical Activities on Attention and Concentration in School-aged Children

Abstract

Purpose. This study examined the effects of 4-week, daily 6-minute coordinated-bilateral physical activity (CBPA) breaks in classroomonattentionandconcentrationinschool-agedchildren. Methods. Participants (n=116) in fifth grade fromtwo elementary schools were assigned to three groups: two intervention groups (n= 60) and one control group (n = 56). All three groups were pre- and post-tested with the d2 Test ofAttention (d2 test). One intervention group (n = 31) took part in six minutes ofdaily classroom- based coordinated-bilateral physical activity (CBPA) break for four weeks. Another intervention group (n = 29), the Fitbit Only (Fitbit-O),woreFitbitsperdayduringaschool,fivedaysperweek forfourweeks withoutCBPAbreaks. A2 × 3ANOVA was conducted, followed by the post hoc comparisons. Results. The CBPA showed significant increases in processing speed (??1 = 6.876, p =.010),focusedattention(??1 = 10.688, p = .002), concentration performance (??1 = 26.46, p = .000), and attention span (??1 =14.090, p = .000) over the control, but not in accuracy (Error %). The CBPA showed significant improvement in concentration performance (??1 = 24.162, p = .000) and attention span (??1 = 6.891, p = .011), compared to the Fitbit-O. No significant changes in all five attention parameters were found between the Fitbit-O and the control. Conclusion. It was concluded that daily brief coordinated-bilateral activities can improve attention and concentration in fifth-grade students over the course of four weeks.