Movement is often treated as an interruption in a child’s day. Something that lets children release energy before they sit down to the “real” learning. Research says otherwise. Physical activity and cognitive development are interwoven at the level of brain physiology, not just wellbeing. In the Canadian methodology behind the Maple Bear program, movement is the backbone of the day, not an addition to it.
What will you learn from this article?
- How much daily physical activity preschool and school-age children need, according to World Health Organization guidelines.
- Why the world’s first integrated guidelines covering movement, sleep and sedentary time were developed in Canada.
- What research says about the link between physical activity, working memory, attention and language learning.
- Why movement builds self-regulation, and why self-regulation, more than early knowledge of letters, predicts success at school.
- How movement is woven into a child’s day at Maple Bear and what parents can do at home.
How much physical activity does a child need?
The World Health Organization is precise on this point. Children aged one to four should spend at least 180 minutes a day being physically active. For three- and four-year-olds, at least 60 of those minutes should involve moderate to vigorous intensity effort.
For children and adolescents aged 5 to 17, including primary school students, the guidelines call for an average of 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per day.
In both cases the principle is the same: more is better. The WHO sets no upper limit.
Where did this approach come from? Canadian roots
The figure of 180 minutes is Australian in origin. The first national movement recommendations for children aged 0 to 5 were commissioned by the Australian government in 2008 and published in 2010. British and Canadian guidelines were later built on them.
The Canadian contribution was of a different kind, and it proved decisive. In 2017 the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology, together with ParticipACTION and the Public Health Agency of Canada, published the world’s first guidelines that do not treat movement in isolation from the rest of a child’s day. Physical activity, sleep and sedentary time were brought together as a single whole covering the full 24 hours of children aged 0 to 4. The document was developed by CSEP, the HALO group at the CHEO Research Institute, the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation at the University of Alberta, the Public Health Agency of Canada and ParticipACTION, with input from more than 600 national and international stakeholders. It comes down to four words: sweat, step, sleep, sit.
The Canadian model quickly became the reference point. When Australia developed its own 24-hour guidelines for young children in 2017, it was able to draw on research conducted in Canada. The World Health Organization then adopted the same integrated model for its global guidelines for the early years.
The heart of this approach is not a number of minutes but a philosophy. Movement, sleep and sedentary time are three connected parts of a single day that cannot be considered separately. This whole-day view of child development underpins the Maple Bear program.
What does the research say?
A systematic review of physical activity and cognitive functioning in children found a relationship that held regardless of age. Higher physical activity is associated with stronger cognitive functioning, above all in working memory, visuospatial memory and cognitive flexibility.
A review of randomized trials among preschool children points the same way. The vast majority of studies examining the effect of physical activity on cognitive development recorded significant, positive changes: in language learning, academic achievement, attention and working memory. Among studies assessing motor skills, the vast majority recorded significant improvement in physical competence.
Physical and intellectual development therefore go hand in hand. They do not compete for time in the daily schedule.
Movement teaches self-control, not only coordination
The most interesting question in this field is not whether, but why. An answer comes from research carried out as part of the PLAYCE project in Western Australia. Researchers found that preschoolers’ physical activity levels were significantly associated with cognitive school readiness. Moderate and vigorous activity was also associated with stronger self-regulation, and self-regulation partly explained the relationship.
In other words, movement does more than increase oxygen flow to the brain. It teaches a child self-command. Waiting for a turn in a game. Following the rules of play. Handling frustration when things do not go their way.
And self-regulation, more than early knowledge of letters or numbers, is one of the strongest predictors of how a child will settle into school.
What does this look like in practice at Maple Bear?
In our preschools and schools, movement is not separated from learning. It is woven into it every day, in line with the Canadian whole-child principle, in which physical, intellectual, emotional and social development are treated as equal, mutually connected pillars.
- Movement is built into the rhythm of the day, not into a single lesson. Blocks of table work are short and interspersed with activity. Children return to a task focused, instead of losing attention after a quarter of an hour.
- Time outdoors every day. In preschool, two fixed outdoor play blocks every day, averaging around 70 minutes of outdoor activity, whatever the weather.
- Games with rules build self-regulation. Waiting for a signal, following the rules and coping with losing exercise exactly the skills that the PLAYCE study linked to cognitive school readiness.
- Physical development is planned, not incidental. Physical education is a deliberately designed part of the program and supports cognitive development as well. An example from the gym: children run freely, the teacher calls out a math problem, and the children have to work out the answer and form circles of exactly that many people. Movement is combined here with numerical processing, precisely as the research cited above describes.
- Motor skills are one of the areas we observe and report to parents. We treat physical development as seriously as progress in language or mathematics.
This approach, rooted in Canadian methodology, treats a child’s body and mind as one cooperating system. In the early years that is exactly what they are.
What can parents do at home?
Supporting cognitive development through movement does not require organized sports classes. Daily active play is enough.
- Games with rules. Red light, green light or hopscotch engage the same impulse control and waiting for a signal that researchers linked to stronger cognitive school readiness.
- Daily movement, including outdoors. The WHO stresses that more activity always means more benefit. There is no upper limit.
- Less prolonged sitting. Even short breaks to stretch or jump help a child hold concentration at the table.
- Activity shared by parent and child. A walk, a bike ride, dancing in the living room. It builds fitness and also the bond that in itself supports emotional development.
What does this mean for parents?
In the early years of education, every run, jump and game is not a break from learning. It is learning. A child who runs, jumps and plays in a group is at the same time building the neural networks responsible for memory, attention and self-control.
For parents looking for an environment where physical and intellectual development do not compete for time in the daily schedule, this is a fundamental difference. At Maple Bear, movement is not a reward for finished work or a way to burn off energy before a lesson. It is part of the program, planned as deliberately as learning to read or mathematics.
About the author
Bartłomiej Zelek is a physical education graduate and a physical education teacher at Maple Bear Kraków. He holds a UEFA A coaching license and has worked as a youth coach at a leading football academy for eight years. He completed postgraduate studies in neurodidactics with elements of mentoring and coaching, and is currently finishing a master’s degree in psychology.
Sources
- WHO Guidelines on Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour, who.int
- Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for the Early Years (0 to 4 years), csepguidelines.ca
- Okely A.D. et al., The Australian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for the Early Years (Birth to 5 Years), BMC Public Health, 2017, DOI: 10.1186/s12889-017-4867-6
- Physical Activity and Cognitive Functioning of Children: A Systematic Review, PMC5923842
- Effects of Physical Activity on Motor Skills and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood: A Systematic Review, PMC5745693
- The Relationship between Physical Activity, Self-Regulation and Cognitive School Readiness in Preschool Children (PLAYCE), PMC8619721