FAST Club: The Impact of a Physical Activity Intervention on Executive Function in Children With Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Physical activity (PA) has been demonstrated to have positive effects on cognitive function, particularly executive function (EF) skills. Animal models suggest PA may be effective in ameliorating some of the neuropsychological effects of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), but this approach has not been extended to humans. The purpose of this study was to develop a PA program, FAST Club, for children with FASD and to evaluate its effect on a measure of EF. Using a wait-list control design, 30 children age 7–14 yr participated in FAST Club for 2 × 1.5-hr sessions/week for 8 weeks. EF was assessed using the Children’s Color Trails Test. Significant improvements in T scores on the Children’s Color Trails Test were seen immediately postprogram, and this improvement was sustained at 3 months postprogram. These findings provide evidence to support the use of PA as a means to improve EF in children with FASD.

The Effects of Physical Activity on Academic Performance in School-Aged Children: A Systematic Review

“…Then, the remaining articles represented one country of origin each, namely, Spain, Switzerland, Denmark, Chile, Australia, Taiwan, South Africa, Italy, China, Canada, and Germany. Figure 2 Across the 19 interventions, PA was implemented through the following forms of PA; physically active academic lessons [40][41][42][43][44][45][46], PA lesson breaks [40,44,46,47], moderate intensity PA [48], moderate-to vigorous-intensity PA [42,43,45,47,49,50], high-intensity PA [48,51], cognitively engaging PA [47,49,51], aerobic exercise [51], mixed martial arts [52,53], table tennis [54], team games [51], PE lessons [40,41,44,46,48,49,51,55], PA homework [44], multi-activity sport [41,46,50,56,57], and PA that emphasises fundamental movement skill development [41]. Notably, several studies were categorised into various types of PA due t...…”

Exercise in Adolescence Enhances Callosal White Matter Refinement in the Female Brain in a Rat Model of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

“…Exercise intervention is free, accessible, and easily implemented into existing youth programs, which highlights the importance of this research to refine and implement this strategy to improve cognitive outcomes for youth and young adults with FASD. Pritchard Orr and colleagues (2018) assessed executive function capacity following an 8-week exercise program wherein FASD-affected and control participants were asked to participate in two 1.5-h sessions of aerobic exercise per week [ 101 ]. The research team discovered that executive function capacity was improved in FASD-affected participants immediately following and 3 weeks post-exercise intervention, suggesting the efficacy of this intervention for affected youth.…”

Executive and Social Functioning Across Development in Children and Adolescents With Prenatal Alcohol Exposure

“…In other words, their EF intervention had a secondary benefit of improving SF in these children with PAE. Additionally, their finding suggests that other interventions that focus on improving EF could potentially be used to improve SF with some modification (Pritchard Orr et al, 2018). Similar results were found with EF interventions in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs); the Unstuck and On Target (UOT) program is an EF training intervention that has been shown to improve social skills in children ages 8 to 11 with an ASD diagnosis (Kenworthy et al, 2014).…”