The best way to improve children’s performance in the classroom may be to take them out of it.

New research suggests that play and down time may be as important to a child’s academic experience as reading, science and math, and that regular recess, fitness or nature time can influence behavior, concentration and even grades.

A study published this month in the journal Pediatrics studied the links between recess and classroom behavior among about 11,000 children age 8 and 9. Those who had more than 15 minutes of recess a day showed better behavior in class than those who had little or none. Although disadvantaged children were more likely to be denied recess, the association between better behavior and recess time held up even after researchers controlled for a number of variables, including sex, ethnicity, public or private school and class size.

The lead researcher, Dr. Romina M. Barros, a pediatrician and an assistant clinical professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, said the findings were important because many schools did not view recess as essential to education.

“Sometimes you need data published for people at the educational level to start believing it has an impact,” she said. “We should understand that kids need that break because the brain needs that break.”

And many children are not getting that break. In the Pediatrics study, 30 percent were found to have little or no daily recess. Another report, from a children’s advocacy group, found that 40 percent of schools surveyed had cut back at least one daily recess period.

Also, teachers often punish children by taking away recess privileges. That strikes Dr. Barros as illogical. “Recess should be part of the curriculum,” she said. “You don’t punish a kid by having them miss math class, so kids shouldn’t be punished by not getting recess.”

Last month, Harvard researchers reported in The Journal of School Health that the more physical fitness tests children passed, the better they did on academic tests. The study, of 1,800 middle school students, suggests that children can benefit academically from physical activity during gym class and recess.

A small study of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder last year found that walks outdoors appeared to improve scores on tests of attention and concentration. Notably, children who took walks in natural settings did better than those who walked in urban areas, according to the report, published online in August in The Journal of Attention Disorders. The researchers found that a dose of nature worked as well as a dose of medication to improve concentration, or even better.

Andrea Faber Taylor, a child environment and behavior researcher at the Landscape and Human Health Laboratory at the University of Illinois, says other research suggests that all children, not just those with attention problems, can benefit from spending time in nature during the school day. In another study of children who live in public housing, girls who had access to green courtyards scored better on concentration tests than those who did not.

The reason may be that the brain uses two forms of attention. “Directed” attention allows us to concentrate on work, reading and tests, while “involuntary” attention takes over when we’re distracted by things like running water, crying babies, a beautiful view or a pet that crawls onto our lap.

Directed attention is a limited resource. Long hours in front of a computer or studying for a test can leave us feeling fatigued. But spending time in natural settings appears to activate involuntary attention, giving the brain’s directed attention time to rest.

“It’s pretty clear that all human beings experience attentional fatigue,” Dr. Faber Taylor said. “Our attention has to be restored from that fatigue, and there is a growing body of research evidence that nature is one way that seems particularly effective at doing it.”

Playtime and nature time are important not only for learning but also for health and development.

Young rats denied opportunities for rough-and-tumble play develop numerous social problems in adulthood. They fail to recognize social cues and the nuances of rat hierarchy; they aren’t able to mate. By the same token, people who play as children “learn to handle life in a much more resilient and vital way,” said Dr. Stuart Brown, the author of the new book “Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination and Invigorates the Soul” (Avery).

Dr. Brown, a psychiatrist in Carmel Valley, Calif., has collected more than 6,000 “play histories” from human subjects. The founder of the National Institute for Play, he works with educators and legislators to promote the importance of preserving playtime in schools. He calls play “a fundamental biological process.” “From my viewpoint, it’s a major public health issue,” he said. “Teachers feel like they’re under huge pressures to get academic excellence to the exclusion of having much fun in the classroom. But playful learning leads to better academic success than the skills-and-drills approach.”

(SOURCES: Romina M. Barros, M.D., assistant professor, pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Children's Hospital, New York City; Jane Ripperger-Suhler, M.D., assistant professor, psychiatry, behavioral science and pediatrics, Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, and psychiatrist, Scott & White Mental Health Center, Temple, Texas; Josh Langberg, Ph.D., assistant professor, pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Center for ADHD, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center; February 2009, Pediatrics)

MONDAY, Jan. 26 (HealthDay News) -- As a pediatric resident in a hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y., Dr. Romina M. Barros sat in on a regular first-grade class at a local elementary school. Classes started at 8:30 in the morning, lasting till noon, with one 10-minute break during which children were not allowed to talk or move from their chairs.

"It was winter, and I thought maybe they didn't go outside because of the weather," said Barros, now an assistant professor of pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Children's Hospital in New York City. "I had a headache."

In fact, the children always had one 10-minute break but were not allowed to talk and had to stay in their chairs. There was nowhere for the kids to go outside and play, the teacher explained.

Barros has now published a study in the February issue of Pediatrics documenting the value of recess: Children who have it during the day behave better in class.

"When we restructure our education system, we have to think that recess should be part of the education system, and if we have to get more help, we'll have to get more help," Barros said. "Even if we don't have space, if they could have 15 minutes indoors. Unstructured time, that's all that they need."

Children learn as much on breaks as they do in the traditional classroom, experimenting with creativity and imagination and learning how to interact socially.

"Conflict resolution is solved on the playground, not in the classroom," said Dr. Jane Ripperger-Suhler, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral science and pediatrics at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine and a psychiatrist with Scott & White Mental Health Center, in Temple.

Recess is recommended at least once a day, for 20 or more minutes. Physical activity should also be part of this time. Most Asian elementary schools allow children a 10-minute break after every 40 minutes to 50 minutes of instruction, the authors stated.

Although it's unclear how much recess children in the United States are getting, some studies have documented a dramatic decrease, and this study reported that the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has resulted in less recess for many children.

"They started to find out that kids in the U.S. were not doing well compared to other countries and started penalizing schools when kids weren't passing the state test," Barros explained. "That's when schools [started to cut recess] not only because of space, but also because they wanted to put more in academics."

Barros and her colleagues looked at a national database of about 11,000 8- and 9-year-olds. Children had one of two levels of recess: none/minimal (1 to 15 minutes/day) or "some recess." The population was divided equally between boys and girls.

Kids with more recess behaved better in school, according to a teacher rating system.

The 30 percent of children who had no or only minimal breaks were more likely to be black, from households with lower incomes and lower education levels, to be living in the Northeast or South, and to be attending urban public school.

"The kids who are already disadvantaged in a number of different ways are getting further disadvantaged," said Ripperger-Suhler.

Almost two-thirds of this disadvantaged group had physical activity only twice a week or less, putting them at greater risk of becoming obese.

"Children are receiving less than the recommended time or opportunity to engage in physical activity each day and this is especially true for lower income, ethnic minorities," said Josh Langberg, an assistant professor of pediatrics for the Center for ADHD at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. "There are some significant limitations of this study that make conclusions about the relationship about kids getting recess on their behavior difficult to make . . . this highlights the importance of further research evaluating does this indeed impact child behavior or does it impact learning."

More information

Visit the International Play Association    for more on recess for children and related issues.

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