Relationship of aerobic fitness and motor skills with memory and attention in preschoolers (Ballabeina): A cross-sectional and longitudinal study

BACKGROUND: The debate about a possible relationship between aerobic fitness and motor skills with cognitive development in children has recently re-emerged, because of the decrease in children's aerobic fitness and the concomitant pressure of schools to enhance cognitive performance. As the literature in young children is scarce, we examined the cross-sectional and longitudinal relationship of aerobic fitness and motor skills with spatial working memory and attention in preschool children. METHODS: Data from 245 ethnically diverse preschool children (mean age: 5.2 (0.6) years, girls: 49.4%) analyzed at baseline and 9 months later. Assessments included aerobic fitness (20 m shuttle run) and motor skills with agility (obstacle course) and dynamic balance (balance beam). Cognitive parameters included spatial working memory (IDS) and attention (KHV-VK). All analyses were adjusted for age, sex, BMI, migration status, parental education, native language and linguistic region. Longitudinal analyses were additionally adjusted for the respective baseline value. RESULTS: In the cross-sectional analysis, aerobic fitness was associated with better attention (r=0.16, p=0.03). A shorter time in the agility test was independently associated with a better performance both in working memory (r=-0.17, p=0.01) and in attention (r=-0.20, p=0.01). In the longitudinal analyses, baseline aerobic fitness was independently related to improvements in attention (r=0.16, p=0.03), while baseline dynamic balance was associated with improvements in working memory (r=0.15, p=0.04). CONCLUSIONS: In young children, higher baseline aerobic fitness and motor skills were related to a better spatial working memory and/or attention at baseline, and to some extent also to their future improvements over the following 9 months. TRIAL REGISTRATION: clinicaltrials.gov NCT0067454

A contextualized view on long-term predictors of academic performance

$a Several studies show that parents' and teachers' perceptions of children's academic competence are important predictors of children's subsequent academic performance. However, there is a lack of evidence on what precedes these perceptions as well as the dynamics within a comprehensive model. The aim of this study was to investigate the simultaneous influences of child (general intelligence, problem behavior) and family (socioeconomic status, migration background) characteristics as well as parents' and teachers' perceptions of children's competence on children's academic performance in a 3-year longitudinal study with 221 children (52% girls) who were 5 to 7 years of age when they were first measured (M = 6.15 years, SD = 0.80 years). Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that parents' and teachers' perceptions of children's competence were positively associated with children's general intelligence and negatively associated with family adversity and child problem behavior. Further, parents' perceptions fully mediated the association between family adversity as well as child problem behavior and academic performance. Teachers' perceptions partially mediated the association between child problem behavior and academic performance

Memory abilities in children with mathematical difficulties : Comorbid language difficulties matter

The present study investigated cognitive abilities in children with difficulties in mathematics only (n = 48, M = 8 years and 5 months), combined mathematical and language difficulty (n = 27, M = 8 years and 1 month) and controls (n = 783, M = 7 years and 11 months). Cognitive abilities were measured with seven subtests, tapping visual perception, selective attention, memory, and reasoning, as well as Full-Scale-IQ. Children with difficulties in mathematics only differed in their cognitive abilities, not only from controls, but also from children with comorbid language difficulties. Children with mathematical difficulties only performed worse than controls in a selective attention measure, but not in any working memory measure, meanwhile children with difficulties in mathematics and language performed worse than controls in verbal working memory components, but not selective attention. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed