A healthy and balanced diet, more time devoted to reading and playing a team sport help children to better analyze and evaluate situations in real time.
- Improving the overall quality of the diet helped improve children’s reasoning skills during the first two years of school.
- Young people who spent more time reading and playing team sports were also able to better analyze and evaluate situations in real time.
- Time in front of screens and unsupervised physical activities were linked to poorer reasoning skills.
Thinking skills are essential for every child when it comes to learning, solving everyday problems and performing well in school. Recently, researchers from the University of Finland in Kuopio revealed that they have identified a number of steps that parents can take to help their children improve their reasoning skills during the first two years of school.
Healthier Eating Habits Linked to Better Thinking Skills
In one study, they wanted to know if changes in diet quality, physical activity and sedentary behavior were associated with changes in cognitive function in children. For the purposes of the work, they recruited 397 students, aged 6 to 9, who were divided into two groups. Some participated in a two-year diet and physical activity intervention and the rest were “control” participants. In detail, the children and their parents who were part of the intervention group benefited from six dietary advice sessions of 30 to 45 minutes and six physical activity advice sessions of 30 to 45 minutes.
“Children with healthier eating habits showed greater cognitive development than other children. Specifically, better overall diet quality, less consumption of red meat, and greater consumption of low-fat dairy products. fats have been linked to better reasoning skills”, explained research author Sehrish Naveed in a statement.
Reading and team sports help children better analyze reality
According to the results, published in the journal Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, young people who spend more time reading and playing team sports demonstrate better reasoning skills than their peers. In contrast, excessive time spent on a computer and unsupervised physical activities were associated with poorer reasoning skills.
“In the lives of growing children, diet and physical activity are just one of the factors that influence lifestyle and reasoning skills. According to our study, adopting a healthy diet healthy and encouraging children to read is beneficial for the development of children’s cognitive functions. In addition, practicing a team sport seems to promote reasoning skills. concluded Dr Eero Haapala, co-author of the work.
