"Physical education empowers students to develop positive attitudes towards physical and lifelong habits of participation. It engages them in the ongoing development of the knowledge, understanding, skills and values to participate in healthy physical activity." (Department of Education & Early Childhood Development, 2009, p.8)
Parents
Coaches
References
Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. (2009). Improving School Sport and Physical Education in your School. Retrieved from http://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/school/teachers/teachingresources/social/physed/hpeimprovsport.pdf
Parents
- Physical activity improves brain health and cognitive function at any age
- Regular exercise can improve short-term memory and allow faster reaction time.
- Exercise helps children to learn. Researchers have found that after exercising, people learn vocabulary words 20% faster than what they used to do before exercising.
- Exercise can help children to think flexibly. Through experiments, scientists have found that increasing heart-rate through exercise improves cognitive flexibility and creativity.
- Exercise reduces stress. This is significant, as proven by many researches, stress damages a child's brain.
Coaches
- Moderate to vigorous physical activity increases blood flow in children's bodies and brains, improving their cerebrovascular health. The blood delivers oxygen and glucose, helping the brain to focus longer and be more alert. Researchers also suggest that 3 months of exercise can enhance the stimulation and activity of the brain responsible for memory and learning by approximately 30%.
- Physical activity is the best medicine to maintain brain health throughout a lifespan, and it has the greatest effect on developing brains thus being highly important to young children.
- Exercise can release Brain-derived neurotrophic factors (BDNF), which stimulate the growth of new neurons. BDNF encourages the brain’s nerve cells to branch out, building connections with each other in new ways – this leads to children’s openness to learning and increased capacity for knowledge.
- Studies suggest that children with higher levels of aerobic fitness show greater brain volumes in grey matter brain regions, which are those important for memory and learning.
- Exercise improves the white matter integrity, which leads to faster neural conduction between brain regions and superior cognitive performance. Physically fit children have more fibrous and compact white matter tracts in the brain than their less fit peers.
References
Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. (2009). Improving School Sport and Physical Education in your School. Retrieved from http://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/school/teachers/teachingresources/social/physed/hpeimprovsport.pdf