12 Weeks of Kindergarten-Based Yoga Practice Increases Visual Attention, Visual-Motor Precision and Decreases Behavior of Inattention and Hyperactivity in 5-Year-Old Children

Abstract

The present study assesses the impact of Kindergarten-based yoga on cognitive performance, visual-motor coordination, and behavior of inattention and hyperactivity in 5-year-old children. In this randomized controlled trial, 45 children (28 female; 17 male; 5.2 ± 0.4 years) participated. Over 12 weeks, 15 children performed Hatha-yoga twice a week for 30 min, another 15 children performed generic physical education (PE) twice a week for 30 min, and 15 children performed no kind of physical activities, serving as control group (CG). Prior to ( T 0 ) and after 12 weeks ( T 1 ), all participants completed Visual Attention and Visuomotor Precision subtests of Neuropsychological Evaluation Battery and teachers evaluated children’s behavior of inattention and hyperactivity with the Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Rating Scale-IV. At T 0 , no significant differences between groups appeared. Repeated measures analysis of variance revealed that following Bonferroni–Holm corrections yoga, in comparison to PE and CG, had a significant positive impact on the development on behavior of inattention and hyperactivity. Further, yoga has a significant positive impact on completion times in two visumotor precision tasks in comparison to PE. Finally, results indicate a significant positive effect of yoga on visual attention scores in comparison to CG. 12 weeks of Kindergarten-based yoga improves selected visual attention and visual-motor precision parameters and decreases behavior of inattention and hyperactivity in 5-year-old children. Consequently, yoga represents a sufficient and cost-benefit effective exercise which could enhance cognitive and behavioral factors relevant for learning and academic achievement among young children.

Physical Activity and Cognitive Aspects of Self-Regulation in Preschool-Aged Children: A Systematic Review

“…Only one study, incorporated all cognitive aspects of self-regulation and found that there were improvements in attention, working memory, and inhibition, as result of the PA intervention [22]. In the current review, attention was the only component of self-regulation that consistently showed improvement as a result of the PA interventions [19][20][21][22]. The findings for working memory and inhibition were inconclusive regarding changes in these variables with PA. Half of the studies (1 of 2) showed a positive impact of PA on working memory, and three of five studies found a positive impact of PA on inhibition [20,22,24].…”

“…After corrections, the only significant interaction effect that remained was that yoga had an impact on the precision of detection in comparison to the control group (adj. p = 0.005; ηp 2 = 0.164) [19]. The effect size was considered large and these findings demonstrated a positive impact of yoga on attention control.…”

“…The following studies included the attention component of self-regulation in a preschool-aged population. Jarraya et al examined the impact of kindergarten-based yoga on cognitive performance [19]. Subjects included 45 healthy children (5.2 ± 0.4 y, 17 males), who were randomly assigned to one of three groups-yoga (n = 15), a generic physical education program (n = 15), or a control group (n = 15).…”

“…This relationship was present regardless of the method of assessment of PA or attention and the quality of the study. Three of the four studies were considered high quality, as they were classified to have a low risk of bias [19,21,22]. One study had a high risk of bias, so the results of said study should be interpreted with caution [20].…”

Effectiveness of a Physical Education Program on the Motor and Pre-literacy Skills of Preschoolers From the Training-To-Health Project: A Focus on Weight Status

“…Moreover, several studies reported that the practice of physical activity (PA) improves FMS level by inducing a higher MC in childhood (Fisher et al, 2005;Hardy et al, 2010;Battaglia et al, 2018;Aivazidis et al, 2019;Nilsen et al, 2020a). For these reasons, the practice of structured PA in kindergarten during this period results to be crucial (Deli et al, 2006;Barbosa et al, 2016;Figueroa and An, 2017;Kippe and Lagestad, 2018;Alves and Alves, 2019;Jarraya et al, 2019). However, PA in preschool age is limited and, furthermore, the level of PA among children living in Europe varied considerably among countries (Konstabel et al, 2014).…”