#016 Your Child Doesn't Just Need More Movement. They Need Movement That Makes Them Think

ISSUE #016 | YOUR CHILD DOESN'T JUST NEED MORE MOVEMENT. THEY NEED MOVEMENT THAT MAKE THEM THINK

THE INSIGHT

If simply moving more built self-control, some of the busiest kids I know should have incredible impulse control.

They don't.

And that is why I think we need to stop putting every kind of movement into the same bucket.

Running around is movement.

Kicking a ball is movement.

Following a three-step sequence, stopping your body when you want to keep going, changing direction when the rule changes, remembering what comes next, and correcting yourself when you make a mistake?

That's movement too.

But your brain is doing something very different.

WHAT THE RESEARCH TELLS US

O’Callaghan and colleagues studied 360 children ages five and six. They looked at three different parts of movement: how physically active children were, how well they performed movement skills, and something called divergent movement capability.

That last one is especially interesting.

Children were given movement problems and asked to find different ways to solve them.

The researchers found that movement proficiency and exploratory movement were significantly related to executive function. Physical-activity dose by itself was not. Exploratory movement showed the strongest relationship.

That does not mean exercise doesn't matter.

Another study by Luo and colleagues found that preschoolers who spent more time in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and had better cardiovascular fitness performed better on inhibitory-control tasks. But those relationships were not identical across every executive skill.

So the science is giving us a more precise message:

Don't ask only how much a child moves. Ask what the movement is asking the child to do.

Neither study proves that a particular kind of movement caused stronger executive function. Both were correlational.

But that distinction is important.

WHY IT MATTERS

Parents hear constantly that kids “need more movement.”

I think that's true.

I also think it's incomplete.

A child can spend an hour moving without having to control very much.

Run.

Climb.

Chase.

Jump.

Those things have plenty of value.

But now change the demand.

Wait.

Remember these three steps.

Don't move until you hear the correct cue.

Keep one part of your body still while another part moves.

Switch when the rule changes.

Suddenly the child isn't only moving.

The child has to manage movement.

That's a different challenge.

RESEARCH FOR THE REAL WORLD

This distinction is a huge part of how I think about Capacity Training and Kinder Karate.

Here's an example from my own teaching.

I can teach a child a sidekick as three steps:

Chamber. Kick. Retract.

Now the child has to hold that sequence in mind.

Then I can add another demand: keep your guard up while I create a distraction.

Now the child has to inhibit the urge to drop those hands.

Then I can create urgency around getting the foot back quickly.

Now the child has to execute the sequence while monitoring what his body is doing.

That's not something the research has tested specifically in my program.

That's my professional application of the research.

And that's an important distinction.

I'm not interested in exhausting a child until he finally sits still.

Being tired is not the same thing as having self-control.

I want to create a movement environment where the child repeatedly has to use self-control.

THE BIGGER QUESTION

Instead of asking, “Is my child getting enough physical activity?”

maybe there is a second question worth asking:

“How often does my child's movement require them to think, adapt, remember, stop, and solve?”

Because those may be two very different kinds of movement.

SOURCE

Luo, X., Herold, F., Ludyga, S., Gerber, M., Kamijo, K., Pontifex, M. B., Hillman, C. H., Alderman, B. L., Müller, N. G., Kramer, A. F., Ishihara, T., Song, W., & Zou, L. (2023). Association of physical activity and fitness with executive function among preschoolers. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 23(4), 100400. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijchp.2023.100400

O’Callaghan, L., Foweather, L., Crotti, M., Oppici, L., Pesce, C., Boddy, L., Fitton Davies, K., & Rudd, J. (2024). Associations of physical activity dose and movement quality with executive functions in socioeconomically disadvantaged children aged 5–6 years. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 70, 102546. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2023.102546