Featured Article: The 3 R's? A Fourth Is Crucial, Too:
Recess
2-27-2009
By Tara Parker-Hope : The New York Times Health Section
The best way to improve children's performance in the
classroom may be to take them out of it.
New research suggests that play and down time may be
as important to a child's academic experience as reading,
science and math, and that regular recess, fitness or
nature time can influence behavior, concentration and
even grades. A study published this month in the journal
Pediatrics studied the links between recess and classroom
behavior among about 11,000 children age 8 and 9. Those
who had more than 15 minutes of recess a day showed better
behavior in class than those who had little or none. Although
disadvantaged children were more likely to be denied recess,
the association between better behavior and recess time
held up even after researchers controlled for a number
of variables, including sex, ethnicity, public or private
school and class size.
The lead researcher, Dr. Romina M. Barros, a pediatrician
and an assistant clinical professor at the Albert Einstein
College of Medicine, said the findings were important
because many schools did not view recess as essential
to education.
"Sometimes you need data published for people at
the educational level to start believing it has an impact,"
she said. "We should understand that kids need that
break because the brain needs that break."
And many children are not getting that break. In the
Pediatrics study, 30 percent were found to have little
or no daily recess. Another report, from a children's
advocacy group, found that 40 percent of schools surveyed
had cut back at least one daily recess period.
Also, teachers often punish children by taking away recess
privileges. That strikes Dr. Barros as illogical. "Recess
should be part of the curriculum," she said. "You
don't punish a kid by having them miss math class, so
kids shouldn't be punished by not getting recess."
Last month, Harvard researchers reported in The Journal
of School Health that the more physical fitness tests
children passed, the better they did on academic tests.
The study, of 1,800 middle school students, suggests that
children can benefit academically from physical activity
during gym class and recess.
A small study of children with attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder last year found that walks outdoors appeared
to improve scores on tests of attention and concentration.
Notably, children who took walks in natural settings did
better than those who walked in urban areas, according
to the report, published online in August in The Journal
of Attention Disorders. The researchers found that a dose
of nature worked as well as a dose of medication to improve
concentration, or even better.
Andrea Faber Taylor, a child environment and behavior
researcher at the Landscape and Human Health Laboratory
at theUniversity of Illinois, says other research suggests
that all children, not just those with attention problems,
can benefit from spending time in nature during the school
day. In another study of children who live in public housing,
girls who had access to green courtyards scored better
on concentration tests than those who did not.
The reason may be that the brain uses two forms of attention.
"Directed" attention allows us to concentrate
on work, reading and tests, while "involuntary"
attention takes over when we're distracted by things like
running water, crying babies, a beautiful view or a pet
that crawls onto our lap. Directed attention is a limited
resource. Long hours in front of a computer or studying
for a test can leave us feeling fatigued. But spending
time in natural settings appears to activate involuntary
attention, giving the brain's directed attention time
to rest.
"It's pretty clear that all human beings experience
attentional fatigue," Dr. Faber Taylor said. "Our
attention has to be restored from that fatigue, and there
is a growing body of research evidence that nature is
one way that seems particularly effective at doing it."
Playtime and nature time are important not only for learning
but also for health and development.Young rats denied
opportunities for rough-and-tumble play develop numerous
social problems in adulthood. They fail to recognize social
cues and the nuances of rat hierarchy; they aren't able
to mate. By the same token, people who play as children
"learn to handle life in a much more resilient and
vital way," said Dr. Stuart Brown, the author of
the new book "Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens
the Imagination and Invigorates the Soul" (Avery).
Dr. Brown, a psychiatrist in Carmel Valley, Calif., has
collected more than 6,000 "play histories" from
human subjects. The founder of the National Institute
for Play, he works with educators and legislators to promote
the importance of preserving playtime in schools. He calls
play "a fundamental biological process." "From
my viewpoint, it's a major public health issue,"
he said. "Teachers feel like they're under huge pressures
to get academic excellence to the exclusion of having
much fun in the classroom. But playful learning leads
to better academic success than the skills-and-drills
approach."
