Effects of a Coordinative Ability Training Program on Adolescents’ Cognitive Functioning

Abstract

The purpose of this randomized controlled study was to investigate the effects of a 12-week coordinative ability training program on adolescents’ cognitive functioning, using evaluation tests of visuospatial perception, attention, and working memory. We randomly assigned 60 public school students (14–15 years) to either an experimental coordinative abilities training (∼40 min twice/week) group (n = 30) or a control group (n = 30) who received general psycho-physical wellness training (∼40 min., twice a week). At baseline and after training we used two standardized motor tests and a single cognitive measure (Corsi’s Block-tapping test) to assess students’ visuospatial perception, attention, and working memory. We found a significant Time x Group interaction for the Throwing and Catching Test and Corsi’s Block-Tapping test, reflecting a meaningful experimental group improvement (p < 0.001), and there were no significant pre-post changes found in the control group. Thus, a 12-week program of coordinative abilities was able to improve not only coordination skills but aspects of cognitive functioning relevant to academic achievement.

Effects of Physical Exercise Interventions on Spatial Orientation in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Scoping Review

“…All participants were healthy students with ages ranging from 4 to 15 years. While one study investigated 4-6-year-olds (Boccia et al, 2017), one study 12-13-year-olds (Ben-Zeev et al, 2020) and one study 14-15-year-olds (Latino et al, 2021), the mean age in the remaining studies ranged from 7.6 to 12.0 years. One record contained girls only (Jansen et al, 2011a), two boys only (Boraczyński et al, 2019;Ben-Zeev et al, 2020), one study had a male-female ratio of 19 to one (Pietsch and Jansen, 2018) and one did not give details on the amount of boys and girls participating but performed their intervention in regular school classes (Dirksen et al, 2015).…”

“…Of all included studies, three implemented their training with participants engaged in regular sporting activities (i.e., soccer (Pietsch and Jansen, 2018;Boraczyński et al, 2019) or gymnastics (Jansen et al, 2011a)) while all other studies were conducted with regular school classes. Physical exercise programs that were eligible for inclusion comprised sport-specific activities (i.e., juggling, soccer and creative dance training) (Jansen et al, 2011aPietsch and Jansen, 2018), motor-coordinative exercises (i.e., Life Kinetik motion program, coordinative motor training or multi-mode proprioceptive-coordinative training) (Bluechel et al, 2013;Dirksen et al, 2015;Pietsch et al, 2017;Boraczyński et al, 2019;Latino et al, 2021), functional exercises at high intensity (Ben-Zeev et al, 2020), and training programs focusing on orientation and navigation (i.e., orienteering or navigation games) (Notarnicola et al, 2012;Boccia et al, 2017). Training programs were either conducted in a sports club (Jansen et al, 2011a;Boraczyński et al, 2019) or within a school setting (Notarnicola et al, 2012;Bluechel et al, 2013;Dirksen et al, 2015;Boccia et al, 2017;Pietsch et al, 2017;Pietsch and Jansen, 2018;Ben-Zeev et al, 2020;Latino et al, 2021).…”

“…Physical exercise programs that were eligible for inclusion comprised sport-specific activities (i.e., juggling, soccer and creative dance training) (Jansen et al, 2011aPietsch and Jansen, 2018), motor-coordinative exercises (i.e., Life Kinetik motion program, coordinative motor training or multi-mode proprioceptive-coordinative training) (Bluechel et al, 2013;Dirksen et al, 2015;Pietsch et al, 2017;Boraczyński et al, 2019;Latino et al, 2021), functional exercises at high intensity (Ben-Zeev et al, 2020), and training programs focusing on orientation and navigation (i.e., orienteering or navigation games) (Notarnicola et al, 2012;Boccia et al, 2017). Training programs were either conducted in a sports club (Jansen et al, 2011a;Boraczyński et al, 2019) or within a school setting (Notarnicola et al, 2012;Bluechel et al, 2013;Dirksen et al, 2015;Boccia et al, 2017;Pietsch et al, 2017;Pietsch and Jansen, 2018;Ben-Zeev et al, 2020;Latino et al, 2021). They were delivered by gymnastic instructors (Jansen et al, 2011a), school teachers qualified as soccer coaches (Pietsch and Jansen, 2018), PE-teachers (Dirksen et al, 2015;Latino et al, 2021) or experimenters/trained instructors (Bluechel et al, 2013;Boccia et al, 2017;Ben-Zeev et al, 2020).…”

“…Training programs were either conducted in a sports club (Jansen et al, 2011a;Boraczyński et al, 2019) or within a school setting (Notarnicola et al, 2012;Bluechel et al, 2013;Dirksen et al, 2015;Boccia et al, 2017;Pietsch et al, 2017;Pietsch and Jansen, 2018;Ben-Zeev et al, 2020;Latino et al, 2021). They were delivered by gymnastic instructors (Jansen et al, 2011a), school teachers qualified as soccer coaches (Pietsch and Jansen, 2018), PE-teachers (Dirksen et al, 2015;Latino et al, 2021) or experimenters/trained instructors (Bluechel et al, 2013;Boccia et al, 2017;Ben-Zeev et al, 2020). Trainers were not stated explicitly in three trials (Notarnicola et al, 2012;Boraczyński et al, 2019).…”

“…Ten to 15 sessions amounting to a total of 200-675 min training were conducted in four trials (Bluechel et al, 2013;Pietsch et al, 2017;Pietsch and Jansen, 2018). Five studies carried out 18 to 40 training sessions with a total of 600-1,620 min of training (Jansen et al, 2011a;Dirksen et al, 2015;Boccia et al, 2017;Ben-Zeev et al, 2020;Latino et al, 2021) and two studies trained for 72 (Notarnicola et al, 2012) and 117 sessions (Boraczyński et al, 2019), respectively, with only the latter one stating the total training time of 10,585 min.…”