Cognitive and Academic Outcomes of Fundamental Motor Skill and Physical Activity Interventions Designed for Children with Special Educational Needs: A Systematic Review

The Correlation between Motor Skill Proficiency and Academic Performance in High School Students

The intricate relationship between physical health and cognitive development has been a focal point of multidisciplinary research, suggesting that motor skill proficiency could influence academic outcomes. This study aimed to investigate the correlation between motor control, mobility, stability-measured by the Functional Movement Screen (FMS)-and academic performance among high school students. Conducted with 201 participants from a public high school in Spain, this descriptive non-experimental research divided students into high and low academic performance groups based on their average grade scores, with the median used as the criterion for distinction. The FMS was utilized to assess fundamental motor skills, and academic performance was verified across mathematics, language, science, and physical education subjects. The findings revealed a significant positive relationship between the FMS scores and academic achievement (r = 0.691; p < 0.001), indicating that students with higher motor skill proficiency had higher academic achievement. This correlation persisted across the various subjects, highlighting the potential benefits of integrating physical education and motor skill development into educational strategies. The study's results suggest that educational policies should advocate for comprehensive physical education programs to foster both physical well-being and academic improvement, thereby promoting a holistic educational model that enhances student performance across disciplines.

Physically active learning for children with learning disorders attending special-needs schools: A program evaluation

BACKGROUND

Physically active learning (PAL) is a potentially valuable method to stimulate academic performance and physical activity (PA) in children with learning disorders (LD) attending special-needs schools. It is yet unknown whether PAL can be successfully implemented in special-needs schools.

AIMS

This study aimed to evaluate a PAL-program in special-needs schools by examining teacher's dose delivered, children's dose received, and associations of children's characteristics with dose received.

METHODS

Children (N = 37) from two special-needs schools participated in a six-week PAL-program. Dose delivered was evaluated based on PAL-lessons' implementation rate and duration. Dose received was assessed through time-on-task observations (n = 23) and PA (n = 37). To assess the association between dose received and children's characteristics (sex, behavioral disorders, motor skills, and physical fitness), Mann-Whitney U tests and Spearman's rho correlations were used.

RESULTS

For teacher's dose delivered, the implementation rate exceeded 95%, and the PAL-lessons lasted the intended 12 minutes. For dose received, children's on-task behavior was above 79%, and children spent 43% of the time in moderate-to-vigorous PA during PAL. Motor skills were positively related to on-task behavior related to the movements, and physical fitness was positively related to moderate-to-vigorous PA.

CONCLUSIONS

PAL was successfully implemented in terms of dose delivered and dose received for children with LD attending special-needs schools.

Structured Program for Developing the Psychomotor Skills of Institutionalized Children with Special Educational Needs

Tailoring motor activities to the unique needs of children with special educational requirements has shown considerable efficacy. Our study aimed to develop a structured program specifically designed to enhance psychomotor abilities, focusing on balance and motor-cognitive skills among 28 students (aged 12-14) from two institutional centers in Romania. The program spanned 36 weeks, with biweekly 30 min sessions. Psychomotor skills were assessed through tests measuring balance, speed of movements, and upper limb motor laterality. Initial and final data were collected for evaluation. A statistical analysis, employing the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Wilcoxon Z tests, compared the assessments. The results indicated significant improvements in movement speed, with a notable increase in stimulus identification (averaging from approximately 13 to 14) (p < 0.05) and reduced processing time (decreasing from about 28.7 to 28 s) (p < 0.05). However, while the structured program demonstrated substantial enhancements in specific motor and cognitive-motor skills, it did not yield significant changes in dynamic balance, maintaining values close to 0.9 (p > 0.05) for open-eyed balance and 0.88 (p > 0.05) for closed-eyed balance. Additionally, an analysis of the processing speed in pulses per second showcased a marginal decline, from approximately 0.46 to 0.45, revealing notable disparities between the initial and final measurements (p < 0.05).

The effects of physical activity on glutamate neurotransmission in neuropsychiatric disorders

Physical activity (PA) is an effective way of increasing cognitive and emotional health and counteracting many psychiatric conditions. Numerous neurobiological models for depression have emerged in the past 30 years but many struggle to incorporate the effects of exercise. The hippocampus and pre-frontal cortex (PFC) containing predominantly glutamate neurotransmission, are the centres of changes seen in depression. There is therefore increasing interest in glutamatergic systems which offers new paradigms of understanding mechanisms connecting physical activity, stress, inflammation and depression, not explained by the serotonin theories of depression. Similar hippocampal glutamate dysfunction is observed in many other neuropsychiatric conditions. Excitatory glutamate neurones have high functionality, but also high ATP requirements and are therefore vulnerable to glucocorticoid or pro-inflammatory stress that causes mitochondrial dysfunction, with synaptic loss, culminating in depressed mood and cognition. Exercise improves mitochondrial function, angiogenesis and synaptogenesis. Within the glutamate hypothesis of depression, the mechanisms of stress and inflammation have been extensively researched, but PA as a mitigator is less understood. This review examines the glutamatergic mechanisms underlying depression and the evidence of physical activity interventions within this framework. A dynamic glutamate-based homeostatic model is suggested whereby stress, neuroinflammation and PA form counterbalancing influences on hippocampal cell functionality, which manifests as depression and other neuropsychiatric conditions when homeostasis is disrupted.