Abstract
Objectives
School-based physical activity (PA) interventions have proven beneficial for improving
cognitive performance and overall academic achievement, but their benefits on language
skills remain unclear. We aimed to assess the effects of school-based PA interventions
on language skills in children and adolescents.
Design
Systematic review with meta-analysis.
Methods
A systematic search was performed in PubMed, PsycINFO and Scopus until September 10th,
2022. We included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that performed a school-based
PA intervention in children/adolescents and that assessed language-related outcomes
(i.e., reading, spelling, vocabulary, verbal fluency, comprehension and grammar) or
language school grades. Random effect meta-analyses were conducted to pool study results.
Results
Thirty-one studies (18,651 participants) were finally included. Significant benefits
were observed for reading (standardized mean difference [SMD]: 0.15; 95% confidence
interval [CI]: 0.08, 0.22), vocabulary (SMD: 0.71; 95%CI: 0.44, 0.97), and comprehension
(SMD: 0.24; 95%CI: 0.09, 0.40), with a non-significant trend (p = 0.083) also observed
for language school grades (SMD: 0.40; 95%CI: −0.05, 0.86). No significant benefits were observed for spelling or verbal fluency
(both p > 0.05), and no meta-analysis could be performed for grammar skills. No consistent
differences were observed between integrated (i.e., performing PA along with the academic
content) and non-integrated PA interventions (e.g., extra physical education lessons).
Conclusions
School-based PA interventions appear as an effective strategy for improving different
language-related skills, although further research is needed to determine how interventions'
and participants' characteristics moderate these effects.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: December 23, 2022
Accepted:
December 21,
2022
Received in revised form:
November 15,
2022
Received:
September 27,
2022
Footnotes
☆Disclosure statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
☆☆PROSPERO registration number: CRD42022312722.
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
