![]() ![]() If recess assumes such a role, then, like physical education, it will need to be planned and directed to ensure that all children are participating in moderately vigorous physical activity. Some have promoted recess time as a solution for increasing children’s physical activity and combating obesity. ![]() 12, 25, 30, 34 Although this new dimension to the recess debate has increased attention on its role, it also has created tension. These statements have strengthened the argument to maintain or reinstate recess as an integral component of the school day. Recently, policy makers and funding organizations have called for more opportunities for daily activity as a means to address childhood obesity. Proponents for structured recess note that children often need help in developing games and require suggestions and encouragement to participate in physical activities. Structured recess is a recess based on structured play, during which games and physical activities are taught and led by a trained adult (teachers, school staff, or volunteers). 14 Although specified time afforded for recess diminishes with age, the benefits of periodic breaks in the academic day to optimize cognitive processing applies equally to adolescents and to younger children. In fact, a student’s ability to refocus cognitively was shown to be stimulated more by the break from the classroom than by the mode of activity that occurred during that break any type of activity at recess benefited cognitive performance afterward. 11, – 13, 16, 19, 21 This finding was true even though, in many cases, the students spent much of their recess time socializing. ![]() 9, 11, 15, 20 Several studies demonstrated that recess, whether performed indoors or outdoors, made children more attentive and more productive in the classroom. 19, 20 The benefits of these interruptions are best served by unstructured breaks rather than by merely shifting from 1 cognitive task to another to diminish stresses and distractions that interfere with cognitive processing. 8, 18 Optimal cognitive processing in a child necessitates a period of interruption after a period of concentrated instruction. This type of exploratory experience is a feature of play in an unstructured social environment. Children develop intellectual constructs and cognitive understanding through interactive, manipulative experiences. ![]()
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