The Power of Sport to Develop Young Minds
Realising the role of movement in developing the brains of children and teens
Activity is integral to how our brain and cognitive faculties develop. Sport comprises a host of different elements that facilitate brain and cognitive development in children and teens. Being more physically active during childhood facilitates brain development. General motor skill development among kids is likewise positively related with their levels of neurocognitive function. Levels of physical fitness during adolescence are similarly associated with cognitive abilities in early adulthood. A message that needs to reach more parents (and teachers) is that youth sport has a key role to play in developing the minds as well as the bodies of children and teens.
A brain needs a body in order to act in the world. Indeed the mind is effectively distributed throughout the body. Engaging in goal-directed action with our body also governs our perception. We move in order to perceive and perceive in order to move. Our brain perceives the world around us in relation to our body and its capabilities. Our cognition is similarly embodied and is developed for the purposes of movement and goal-directed action.
Once we understand this, it becomes less surprising that moving and interacting with the world using our bodies is intrinsically linked with how our brain develops. Brain and body develop in tandem and this is most evident in young children. Early childhood is a period of dramatic growth and development for the brain. Parents who have observed the slightly chaotic but nevertheless impressive feat of toddlers learning to walk will be familiar with the accompanying rapid development in other areas that coincides with this phase. This is not purely coincidental. The primary driver for how cognition develops is for the purposes of acting and interacting with the world. Motor development and cognitive development are coupled together and this is also mirrored in the development of key regions of the brain.
“By acting in the world infants develop their cognition”
- Claes von Hofstein
Most readers will be familiar with the babbling of toddlers as they play with different sounds in the course of learning to talk. Children similarly engage in ‘motor babbling’ - a process of playing with different movements and discovering what their body can do. Naturally, the more opportunity they have to engage in this activity, the more their motor learning progresses. Levels of physical activity among pre-school kids (ages 3-5) are associated with their cognitive and motor development (which are inter-related). Accordingly, the best way to foster a child’s early development is by ensuring they are active and stimulated.
Proficiency in ‘gross motor skills’ (comprising whole body movements) are associated with cognitive development in young children. Exposing young kids to ‘enriched environments’ that are conducive to this exploration helps to facilitate sensorimotor and cognitive development. For instance, young children with better developed locomotor skills also demonstrate greater cognitive ability.
“Contrary to popular notions that motor development begins and ends early, whereas cognitive development begins and ends later, both motor and cognitive development display equally protracted development.”
- Adele Diamond
Motor competence, which includes proficiency in gross (whole-body) motor skills and fine motor skills (dexterity and object manipulation), continues to show a positive relationship with cognitive development in school-aged children. This emphasises the continued importance of regularly engaging in physical exercise and activities that develop coordination (also known as sport) throughout childhood. It also points to the importance of physical education. For instance, interventions that focus on developing gross motor skills in children have proven efficacy in improving elements of cognitive function such as working memory.
Kids who are more active and engage in sport regularly naturally develop their coordination and motor abilities to a greater extent and have a more extensive motor skill repertoire, which is reflected in changes in structure and function within the brain. We will dedicate a future article to the topic of play, but for now it is worth noting the element of play in the exploration and goal-directed activity that drives brain development. Play is a characteristic feature of sport - sport is itself a highly evolved form of play. This helps explain how sport provides such a rich environment for learning and brain development.
The links between physical activity, motor development and neurocognitive development continues as kids enter their teens. Adolescence is a critical period for brain development when important changes in brain structure and function take place. Perhaps most notably, this is a crucial phase of development for the prefrontal cortex. Anybody who has spent time with teenage boys especially will attest that they are highly impulsive in their early teens and their powers of self restraint develop gradually as they progress towards maturation. Aside from providing the benefits of regular physical exercise, sport also helps to develop higher order cognitive skills and executive functions. Sport requires operating within a defined set of rules, so in order to participate kids must regulate their behaviour and exercise restraint.
Impulse control is a precursor for planning and working towards a future goal, as the individual must look beyond their desires in the present to consider what might be in the best interests of their future self. Sport offers a powerful tool for honing these abilities and instilling the value of discipline. Practice and training are by definition all about investing time and effort in service of their future self.
Finally, sport has a big role to play in developing the social brain - that is, the regions of the brain and neurocognitive faculties involved in navigating social contexts and the complexities of human interaction. An integral part of engaging in sport is learning how to play nicely with others. In addition to regulating their own behaviour, the practice and competition arena involve extensive interactions with peers as well as grown-ups. In doing so, kids learn the bounds of acceptable behaviour, how to operate in a cooperative fashion and how to conduct themselves under competitive conditions. In this way sport is a forum for social learning, with behaviour being shaped by the responses of peers and older competitors acting as models, reinforced by the grown-ups, including both coaches and parents.