The Effect of an Enriched Sport Program on Children’s Executive Functions: The ESA Program

Abstract

The effects of physical exercise on executive functions (EFs) are welldocumented. EFs are involved in daily activities, and their development determines the quality of people's future life, both in terms of mental health and quality of life. The purpose of the current paper is to evaluate the effects of a physical education program, elaborated within the Enriched Sports Activity Program (ESA Program), an Erasmus + Project, on EFs, namely, visuospatial working memory, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and task switching. Method: Data were collected on November 2017 (t 1) and May 2018 (t 2). At t 1 , a sample of 357 children from four European countries (Italy, Germany, Lithuania, and Turkey) performed a cognitive test battery made up of Digit Span Forward/Backward, Stroop Task, and Trail Making Test (TMT), whose order was randomized. From November until May, classrooms from the experimental group followed the ESA Program, while classrooms from the control continued with the ordinary physical education class. At t 2 , children from both experimental and control groups performed again the cognitive battery. Result: The repeated measures ANOVA showed a significant effect of the ESA Program on the TMT B and on Digit Span Backward, but no significant effects were found on Digit Span Forward and Stroop Task. Conclusion: The introduction of a sport program enriched with cognitive stimuli has beneficial effects for children working memory and cognitive flexibility.

Cognitive and Physical Activity-Related Aspects of Children Associated to the Performance of the Crunning Movement

“…Detailed description of the study design and the ESA Program can be found elsewhere, describing both the cognitive tests and their administration and motor components, as well as the full description of the crunning test and administration procedures within the project [ 15 , 29 ].…”

“…Therefore, all testing procedures were performed in the same way and order. At the beginning of the project, each participant underwent a cognitive examination [ 29 ] and a physical evaluation [ 15 ], which were repeated at the end of the intervention. Before the start of the ESA training program, each participant also underwent a psychological test battery (ESA PTB, a 32 item questionnaire which includes questions regarding personal information, lifestyle-related factors and school-associated information), which was administered on two different occasions prior to the inclusion of the participants in the ESA program.…”

“…Before the start of the ESA training program, each participant also underwent a psychological test battery (ESA PTB, a 32 item questionnaire which includes questions regarding personal information, lifestyle-related factors and school-associated information), which was administered on two different occasions prior to the inclusion of the participants in the ESA program. On the first day, the participants underwent a cognitive assessment which lasted around 1 h [ 29 ]. On the second day, a questionnaire was administered, which included questions related to habits, family, recreational and social aspects.…”

“…Retrieved from https://www.millisecond.com): the Color Word Stroop (CWS) task for the inhibitory control, measured by the time needed to select the right color within the stroop test; the Digit Span Test (DST) for working memory, measured by the number of recalled digits in an exact order and in a reversed order; and the Trail Making Test (TMT) for shifting of attention, measured by error number and execution time. For further details regarding the cognitive test administration, please refer to Gentile et al [29].…”

The Influence of an Enriched Sport Program on Children’s Sport Motivation in the School Context: The ESA PROGRAM

“…The program consisted of physical exercises that were modified to stimulate the three core executive functions, namely inhibitory control, working memory, and task shifting. ESA Program revealed to have positive effects on children's physical performance (Thomas et al, 2020) and executive functions (in particular, on working memory and task shifting) (Gentile et al, 2020).…”