This study tested the association between aerobic fitness and executive function and the impact of enhanced, cognitively challenging physical activity on executive function in overweight and lean children. Seventy children aged 9-10 years were assigned to either a 6-month enhanced physical education programme including cognitively demanding (open skill) activities or curricular physical education only. Pre- and post-intervention tests assessed aerobic capacity (Leger test) and two components of executive function: inhibition and working memory updating (random number generation task). Indices of inhibition and memory updating were compared in higher- and lower-fit children and intervention effects were evaluated as a function of physical activity programme (enhanced vs. curricular) and weight status (lean vs. overweight). Results showed better inhibition in higher- than lower-fit children, extending the existing evidence of the association between aerobic fitness and executive function to new aspects of children's inhibitory ability. Overweight children had more pronounced pre- to post-intervention improvements in inhibition than lean children only if involved in enhanced physical education. Such intervention effects were not mediated by aerobic fitness gains. Therefore, the cognitive and social interaction challenges inherent in open skill tasks, even though embedded in a low-dose physical activity programme, may represent an effective means to promote cognitive efficiency, especially in overweight children.

In light of the interrelation between motor and cognitive development and the predictive value of the former for the latter, the secular decline observed in motor coordination ability as early as preschool urges identification of interventions that may jointly impact motor and cognitive efficiency. The aim of this study was twofold. It (1) explored the outcomes of enriched physical education (PE), centered on deliberate play and cognitively challenging variability of practice, on motor coordination and cognitive processing; (2) examined whether motor coordination outcomes mediate intervention effects on children’s cognition, while controlling for moderation by lifestyle factors as outdoor play habits and weight status. Four hundred and sixty children aged 5–10 years participated in a 6-month group randomized intervention in PE, with or without playful coordinative and cognitive enrichment. The weight status and spontaneous outdoor play habits of children (parental report of outdoor play) were evaluated at baseline. Before and after the intervention, motor developmental level (Movement Assessment Battery for Children) was evaluated in all children, who were then assessed either with a test of working memory (Random Number Generation task), or with a test of attention (from the Cognitive Assessment System). Children assigned to the ‘enriched’ intervention showed more pronounced improvements in all motor coordination assessments (manual dexterity, ball skills, static/dynamic balance). The beneficial effect on ball skills was amplified by the level of spontaneous outdoor play and weight status. Among indices of executive function and attention, only that of inhibition showed a differential effect of intervention type. Moderated mediation showed that the better outcome of the enriched PE on ball skills mediated the better inhibition outcome, but only when the enrichment intervention was paralleled by a medium-to-high level of outdoor play. Results suggest that specifically tailored physical activity (PA) games provide a unique form of enrichment that impacts children’s cognitive development through motor coordination improvement, particularly object control skills, which are linked to children’s PA habits later in life. Outdoor play appears to offer the natural ground for the stimulation by designed PA games to take root in children’s mind.

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This study examined the (mis)match between children’s perceived and actual motor skill competence, the role played by sport practice and gender when children under- or overestimate their motor competence, and the biomechanical correlates of perceived competence and perceived–actual competence (mis)match. Ninety children aged 7.5±1.2 years performed the Tests of Gross Motor Development-2 (TGMD-2), with a subsample of 44 children wearing inertial sensor devices for objective measurement of running and throwing, and completed the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Movement Skill Competence. Scores of perceived locomotor and object control competence were regressed on TGMD data. Underestimators (UE), realists (R), and overestimators (OE) were identified and it was assessed whether they differed in gender, amount of sport practice, and selected biomechanical parameters. Differences emerged with respect to gender, with most girls underestimating and most boys overestimating their object control competence, and with respect to sport participation, with OE of locomotor competence practicing a larger amount of sport than UE. Some kinematic parameters were associated with perceived competence without differences between UE, R, and OE. Results suggest: (a) the need for specific motivation strategies to ensure a skill-appropriate enhancement of perceived competence in girls; (b) the relevance of feeling skilled for sport practice; (c) the added value of biomechanical assessment to further our understanding of perceived motor competence.

Recent evidence suggests that fitness and sport expertise jointly benefit cognition and that expertise in cognitively demanding strategic sports enhances both domain-specific cognition and domain-general cognitive function, the executive. However, research focusing on whether physical and motor fitness and sport skill are independent determinants of executive function efficiency, or interact with each other is still lacking. The present study investigated this issue in adolescents. Four hundred and eleven boys and girls aged 12 to 15 years were recruited from Italian schools. They were tested for 1) physical fitness (cardiovascular fitness and muscle power); 2) motor control and perceptual-motor adaptation ability (kinaesthetic discrimination and response orientation ability); 3) core executive functions (inhibition and working memory updating); 4) game skills in team sport (decision making and support). While working memory updating was predicted only by physical fitness, inhibition was predicted by game skill, physical fitness and response orientation ability, and by the interaction of these latter ones. Fitness level significantly moderated the prediction accrued by response orientation ability, with inhibition predicted only in the presence of higher physical fitness. The present findings support the view that there are other pathways through which sport practice influences executive function beside the well-known physical fitness/executive function relationship. Alternatives include those linking executive function to the ability to perform coordinated movements in response to environmental cues and to the ability to perform cognitively challenging, strategic actions as needed in sport game situations. Also, the findings highlight that different executive functions are differently linked to physical fitness, motor fitness and sport proficiency.