Physical activity and academic performance in people with Trisomy 21. A narrative review

Abstract

There is an increasing interest in the studies that relate academic performance and physical activity, although most of them do not examine the intellectual disability dimension. The objective of this review is to know the state of art in the literature in relation to down syndrome, physical activity and academic performance. A narrative review was carried out consulting articles located in the databases of Dialnet, Scopus, Google Scholar, Redalyc, ResearchGate and Scielo. The results show that the vital executive functions for high academic performance are altered in people with Trisomy 21 and that exercises where gross motor skills are put into practice manage to enhance them. As conclusions, physical activity decreases the degree of inattention given to irrelevant stimuli and develops memory in people with Down syndrome, but there is no solid evidence that demonstrates its specific and positive action on school grades.