Exercise makes you smart!
Number games, language courses, tuffle workshops: There are countless ways to encourage children. Today, cognitive education becomes a topic long before kindergarten age, be it in the support concepts of childcare centres, in parent-child courses or at home, where mothers and fathers want to prepare their children for the future. In doing so, we seem to automatically assume that development must take place in the mind. A misconception, as research suggests - according to it, our bodies also seem to be a key to cognitive development, because movement is food for the brain.
How children clear their heads
It starts at a very early age: a baby sees something, then crawls to touch the object. «Children discover the world through movement, which is probably why they have the urge to do so,» says Stefan Schneider. The experiments conducted by the brain researcher from the Institute of Movement and Neuroscience at the German Sport University Cologne suggest that brain activity changes when we move. «Physical activity activates the motor cortex, which controls movement and coordination,» explains Schneider. When we work out, climb or balance, the motor cortex needs all of the brain's resources - and thus relieves the prefrontal cortex, the region of the brain that enables us to think and plan logically, make decisions and regulate our emotions. According to Schneider, this relief means that we can concentrate and focus better after physical activity.
Concentration increases after exercise - but only if you had fun doing it
Schneider and his team are among the few who have been able to demonstrate this effect in humans. However, the brain researcher does not want to be misunderstood. «It' s not exercise as such that makes us more intelligent," he says, "but ideally the increased ability to absorb and concentrate that arises after exercise.» And: the idea of a clear head that absorbs better doesn't always work. This is also shown by Schneider's experiments, in which the test subjects solve cognitive tests after exercise. «For the effect to materialise,» says Schneider, «you have to enjoy the sport - and the physical exertion has to be perceived as neither too high nor too low.» How long the improved ability to absorb and concentrate lasts varies from person to person. There have been no studies on this, but experience suggests between 30 and 120 minutes.
A success story from the USA
However, there is evidence that exercise also has a long-term effect on our cognitive performance. In the book «Super Factor Exercise», the US psychiatrist John J. Ratey reports on a school sports project in Naperville, Illinois, which prompted him to write his bestseller in the first place. We are talking about «Zero Hour», a voluntary fitness training programme offered in several high schools in Naperville. Early in the morning, before regular classes begin, students train endurance and strength in their personal high performance area for an hour.
The aim of the «zero hour», first introduced in the 1990s, was originally to determine whether sport helps to improve children's school performance. It did: the training not only made the pupils fitter, but also smarter. In 1999, only three per cent of eighth-graders in Naperville were overweight, compared to a national average of 30 per cent of their peers.
In the same year, eighth-graders from Naperville took part in the TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) test series with 230,000 pupils from all over the world. Students from China, Japan and Singapore left the participants from the USA far behind - with the exception of the eighth-graders from Naperville. They came sixth in maths and were the best in the world in science. «I have not seen anything in decades,» writes Ratey, «that was as encouraging and inspiring as the programme in Naperville.»
Movement clears the mind for learning. And it can help you understand content better.
Movement clears the mind for learning - it can also help to better understand content, says neuropsychologist and mathematician Hans-Christoph Nürk. Nürk is an expert in the field of embodied cognition, which means «embodied thinking». This branch of psychology research is based on the idea that memory is created by coupling motor processes with sensory stimuli. Researchers have been able to prove, for example, that the movement centre in the brain of a monkey is activated when it observes conspecifics climbing, even though the observing monkey is not moving. «The same thing happens in our brain when we watch football on the couch,» says Nürk. His research indicates that many cognitive processes are inextricably linked to the body.
The body thinks for itself: If you calculate with your fingers, you develop a better feel for numbers.
Maths with the mat
In collaboration with the LEAD Graduate School of Excellence, the Tübingen Science Campus and the Ludwigsburg University of Education, Nürk has investigated how physical perceptions structure our abstract thinking. A good example of this is arithmetic through finger counting. «Many teachers want to discourage their pupils from doing this,» says Nürk, «because they fear that the children will need their fingers later on when they have to add 24 and 38 together.» Data that Nürk and his colleagues have collected refutes this. Rather, says Nürk, they indicate that children acquire a good basis for understanding single-digit numbers through the finger trick. In tests, «finger calculators» performed better or just as well as their classmates.
«Maths with the mat» is the name of another project from the same series of studies. Here, an interactive dance mat is designed to help children understand two-digit numbers. The mat has nine fields, arranged in a 3-by-3 matrix. In the experiment, it is placed on a staircase. By moving from one field to the next, children can activate the mat, for example by moving the marker on the number line. For a shift in the single-digit number range, they only have to move to the side - but if they move the marker by 10, they also have to move to the side, but climb one flight of stairs higher. «It obviously helps if children can associate a greater physical effort with a larger numerical value,» says Nürk. «The learning effect is greater than if they press buttons on the computer and have no idea how a numerical value can be associated with a spatial value.»
Appeal to parents
Exercise is the easiest way to promote development. However, experiments by brain researcher Schneider have shown that it has to be fun in order for it to be effective. «Children should be allowed to experience movement in as many different ways as possible,» says Schneider. The researcher appeals to parents not to deny their children such experiences by overprotecting them: «It starts with not driving them to school.» According to Schneider, parents should also set a good example: «Studies show that children's physical activity behaviour depends on that of their parents.»
How the brain gets going
- Bewegung ist eine der einfachsten und wirkungsvollsten Methoden, die kognitive Entwicklung des Kindes zu fördern.
- Nicht nur Sport, auch das freie Spiel in der Natur, bei dem Kinder klettern, hüpfen, rennen oder auf Baumstämmen balancieren, ist Nahrung fürs Gehirn.
- Körperliche Aktivität erhöht unsere Konzentrations- und Aufnahmefähigkeit – aber nur, wenn sie auch Spass macht, wie Forscher herausfanden.
- Gehirn und Körper gedeihen am besten, wenn Kinder von möglichst vielfältigen Bewegungsarten profitieren. Eltern sollten Kinder nicht durch Überbehütung daran hindern – das beginnt damit, den Nachwuchs nicht in die Schule zu fahren.
- Bewegungsspiele können Kindern helfen, Lerninhalte besser zu verstehen, etwa Zahlen. Ein vereinfachtes Beispiel dafür ist ein am Boden aufgemalter Zahlenstrahl mit Markierungen von 1 bis 10, dem Kinder entlanghüpfen können. Kinder lernen einfacher, wenn sie einen grösseren Zahlenwert mit grösserer körperlicher Anstrengung verknüpfen können.
