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Enhancing Children’s Cognition with Physical Activity Games helps you create movement-based learning experiences that build the bodies and minds of children ages 3 to 12. You’ll learn how to develop physical activities that foster cognitive development and enhance academic achievement.
There are plenty of books that help you use or create games that develop children’s physical skills, and it’s now widely accepted that physical activity can have a positive effect on academic achievement. But this is the first book that shows you how to tailor physical activity games specifically to enhance children’s cognitive abilities. Enhancing Children’s Cognition with Physical Activity Games, written by three authorities in teacher education, exercise physiology, and sport science, shows you how to apply current concepts in child development, cognitive science, physical education, and teacher training to create movement-based learning experiences that benefit children both physically and mentally. You will be guided in creating environments that lend themselves to cognitive development and enhanced academic achievement. And you will understand not only how to create games to foster cognitive development but why such games are so useful in developing the whole child. Enhancing Children’s Cognition with Physical Activity Games offers the following features: •Two chapters of sample games, one for preschoolers and kindergarteners, the other for elementary school children •Expert guidance in creating your own games for children ages 3 to 12, with an emphasis on developmental ranges of 3 to 7 and 7 to 12 •A practice-oriented model of teacher education that shows you how you can best develop and implement physical activity games that support both motor and cognitive development The book contains a running glossary to help teachers and students understand the terms used. It also discusses several models of 21st-century learning, highlighting the role that physical activity games play in a comprehensive education. Enhancing Children’s Cognition With Physical Activity Games is equally useful for teachers working with children in school, before school, or after school and for program directors working with children in community programs. The authors link their application to research, creating a practical reference for professionals in the field, whatever their setting. The book is presented in three parts. Part I grounds you in the research that shows how physical activity affects children’s mental development. You will learn how physical activity benefits children’s cognition and academics, how movement games help children think and learn, and how to create a motivational environment where children want to learn. Part II helps you translate research into practice. You will explore how movements create mental maps and affect mental health, how to engage children in playful learning, and how to incorporate physical activity into your teaching and enhance your teaching models. You will also consider how to assess children at play—how to collect data and know when your program is being effective—and how to apply physical activity games in both the home and the community. In part III, you are supplied with games for preschoolers, kindergartners, and elementary school children. You’ll find games that emphasize three principles: contextual interference, mental control, and discovery. Each chapter concludes with practical implications for teachers, helping you to put into context the information you have come across in that chapter. Enhancing Children’s Cognition with Physical Activity Games helps educators create, design, implement, and evaluate problem-solving games that foster children’s mental engagement and thoughtful decision making. Kids are highly motivated by problem-solving games, and the cognitive skills they develop in solving those problems can be translated to their academic success.
Explains sensory motor development and provides activities and games for use in the classroom and at home.
Physical inactivity is a key determinant of health across the lifespan. A lack of activity increases the risk of heart disease, colon and breast cancer, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, osteoporosis, anxiety and depression and others diseases. Emerging literature has suggested that in terms of mortality, the global population health burden of physical inactivity approaches that of cigarette smoking. The prevalence and substantial disease risk associated with physical inactivity has been described as a pandemic. The prevalence, health impact, and evidence of changeability all have resulted in calls for action to increase physical activity across the lifespan. In response to the need to find ways to make physical activity a health priority for youth, the Institute of Medicine's Committee on Physical Activity and Physical Education in the School Environment was formed. Its purpose was to review the current status of physical activity and physical education in the school environment, including before, during, and after school, and examine the influences of physical activity and physical education on the short and long term physical, cognitive and brain, and psychosocial health and development of children and adolescents. Educating the Student Body makes recommendations about approaches for strengthening and improving programs and policies for physical activity and physical education in the school environment. This report lays out a set of guiding principles to guide its work on these tasks. These included: recognizing the benefits of instilling life-long physical activity habits in children; the value of using systems thinking in improving physical activity and physical education in the school environment; the recognition of current disparities in opportunities and the need to achieve equity in physical activity and physical education; the importance of considering all types of school environments; the need to take into consideration the diversity of students as recommendations are developed. This report will be of interest to local and national policymakers, school officials, teachers, and the education community, researchers, professional organizations, and parents interested in physical activity, physical education, and health for school-aged children and adolescents.
There is a growing recognition in the learning sciences that video games can no longer be seen as impediments to education, but rather, they can be developed to enhance learning. Educational and developmental psychologists, education researchers, media psychologists, and cognitive psychologists are now joining game designers and developers in seeking out new ways to use video game play in the classroom. In Learning by Playing, a diverse group of contributors provide perspectives on the most current thinking concerning the ramifications of leisure video game play for academic classroom learning. The first section of the text provides foundational understanding of the cognitive skills and content knowledge that children and adolescents acquire and refine during video game play. The second section explores game features that captivate and promote skills development among game players. The subsequent sections discuss children and adolescents' learning in the context of different types of games and the factors that contribute to transfer of learning from video game play to the classroom. These chapters then form the basis for the concluding section of the text: a specification of the most appropriate research agenda to investigate the academic potential of video game play, particularly using those games that child and adolescent players find most compelling. Contributors include researchers in education, learning sciences, and cognitive and developmental psychology, as well as instructional design researchers.
Every school day, more than 10 million children attend after-school programs in the United States. This book provides a research-based blueprint for offering students in grades 1-5 innovative programming that combines intensive physical activity and social–emotional skills development with academic enrichment in reading, mathematics, and social studies. Presented is an integrative approach that has been developed and tested to meet the needs of all students, including those in high-poverty schools. The volume includes explicit guidance for setting up a program, implementing cognitively engaging physical games and learning activities, working effectively with mixed-age groups, and monitoring outcomes. Reproducible forms and lesson plans can be downloaded and printed in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size.
This textbook focuses on the relationship between physical exercise and cognition, a very timely and important topic with major theoretical and practical implications for a number of areas including ageing, neurorehabilitation, depression and dementia. It brings together a wide range of analytical approaches and experimental results to provide a very useful overview and synthesis of this growing field of study. The book is divided into three parts: Part I covers the conceptual, theoretical and methodological underpinnings and issues. Part II focuses on advances in exercise and cognition research, with appropriate sub-sections on ‘acute’ and ‘chronic’ exercise and cognition. Part III presents an overview of the area and makes suggestions for the direction of future research. This text provides a cutting-edge examination of this increasingly important area written by leading experts from around the world. The book will prove invaluable to researchers and practitioners in a number of fields, including exercise science, cognitive science, neuroscience and clinical medicine. Key Features: Unique in-depth investigation of the relationship between physical exercise and brain function. Covers theoretical approaches and experimental results and includes chapters on the latest developments in research design. Examines the effects of both acute and chronic exercise on brain function. International list of contributors, who are leading researchers in their field.
