Body Mobility and Attention Networks in 6- to 7-Year-Old Children

Abstract

Learning in 6- to 7-year-old children is strongly influenced by three functions of attention: alertness, orienting, and executive control. These functions share a close relationship with body mobility, such as the posture adopted or a request to stay still during tasks. The aim of this study (ClinicalTrials.gov) was to analyze the influence of body posture (standing versus sitting) and the influence of these imposed postures compared to a free body mobility on attention functions in 6- to 7-year-old children. Twenty-one children (11 girls) with a mean age of 6.7±0.6years performed the Attention Network Test for Children in three-body mobility conditions: sitting still, standing still, and free to move. Three attentional scores were calculated which would separately reflect performance of alertness, orienting, and executive control. Overall, no difference in alertness performance was found between the three bodily mobility conditions. In addition, our results suggest a general poor orienting performance in children, whatever the body mobility condition, which might be related to their young age. Finally, children improved their executive control performance when they stood still, probably due to an improvement in arousal and mental state.

Influence of body mobility on attention networks in school-aged prematurely born children: A controlled trial

“…Among TC, we found no significant difference in MedRT between the three body mobility conditions during incongruent trials. Moreover, among TC, we previously showed that the difference between incongruent and congruent trials was more important in the sitting-still posture than in the standing-still posture ( 32 ), suggesting that the sitting-still and standing-still postures have opposite effects between PC and TC. These results are summarized in Figure 1 .…”

“…Regarding the function of attention, alertness ( 38 , 39 ), and to a lesser extent executive control ( 40 – 43 ), but not orienting ( 38 ), may be improved in a standing compared with a sitting posture. We also previously demonstrated that in TC of 6–7 years of age, standing may improve executive control compared with a sitting posture ( 32 ). Spontaneous body motions and adopting a standing/upright posture may enable children to increase cortical arousal ( 40 , 44 – 46 ).…”

“…It was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Comité de Protection des Personnes Sud-Est III Ethics Committee (2017–010 B). The method of this study has already been documented, ( 48 ) and TC behavior was previously analyzed ( 32 ).…”

“…Children’s movements were video-recorded, reported on a standardized evaluation grid, and independently analyzed by JR and HC. The general amount of movements (Mov) was calculated for each body mobility condition ( 32 ).…”

“…The efficiency of each attentional function may be separately assessed using the Attention Network Test (ANT), ( 31 ) which has been adapted for children (ANT-c) ( 25 ). Studies have used this test to describe attentional functions during childhood among TC ( 32 ) and PC ( 14 , 15 , 17 ). While overall response time and accuracy may be reduced in PC compared with TC ( 14 , 15 ) due to more lapses of attention ( 14 ), the ANT-c highlights that prematurity may have different effects on each attentional function ( 14 , 15 , 17 , 19 ).…”