Effects of aerobic exercises on preschool children's cognitive progress

Abstract

The study was designed to explore the effects of aerobic exercises on the children's executive functions. Subject to the experiment was a sample of preschool children free of diagnosed health disorders (n = 94; average age = 4.2 years; Body Mass Index (BMI) > 85 percentiles). Cognitive Assessment System (CAS) tests were performed prior to and after the experiment. Co-variation analysis of the test rates showed a meaningful effect of the exercises on the cognitive performance in the Study Group children, i.e. the analysis showed the Study Group versus Reference Group CAS test rates being meaningfully different (p=0.03). The study findings may be interpreted as indicating the presence of some mechanisms that ensure the children's physical activity being of positive effect on the cognitive processes in brain