Aerobic exercise linked to better vocabulary growth in children: Study
Newark: Aerobic exercise may improve a child's ability to acquire new word-object relations, a recent study has found. The study, published in the Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, is one of the first studies to research on the effect of exercise on vocablary learning in children.
In simple words, the study showed that exercise can boost vocablury growth in children.
For the study, children aged 6 to 12 years were taught new words before doing one of three things -- taking part in CrossFit exercises, swimming, or completing a coloring sheet. The children who swam were found to be 13% more accurate in follow-up tests of the vocablury words.
It makes sense to the lead researcher, Maddy Pruitt, herself a former college swimmer who now regularly takes CrossFit classes. "Motor movement helps in encoding new words," she said, explaining that exercise is known to increase levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, a protein Pruitt describes as the "Miracle-Gro of the brain."
Why then, did swimming make a difference while CrossFit did not? Pruitt attributes it to the amount of energy each exercise demands of the brain. Swimming is an activity the kids could complete without much thought or instruction. It was more automatic, while the CrossFit exercises were new to them. The children needed to learn the moves, which required mental energy.
DOI: https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2021_JSLHR-20-00359
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