William Atkins
Tuesday, 27 January 2009 19:01
Science -
Health
Page 1 of 3
A New York study examined the effect that recess had on the behavior of third-grade children. They found that teachers rated their students better on behavior when given a daily dose of play. It seems that the milk saying can also be applied to play: "It does a [young] body good!"
The article
School Recess and Group Classroom Behavior was published online on January 26, 2009 (and in print on February 1, 2009) in the journal
Pediatrics (volume 123, number 2, pages 431-436, doi: 10.1542/peds.2007-2825).
The authors of the article include Romina Mariel Barros, Ellen J. Silver, and Ruth E. K. Stein, all of the Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Children's Hospital at Montefiore and Rose F. Kennedy Center, Bronx, New York, U.S.A.
Their goal in the study was to examine
“… the amount of recess that children 8 to 9 years of age receive in the United States” and to compare
“… the group classroom behavior of children receiving daily recess with that of children not receiving daily recess.”
The New York researchers used data from third-grade children participating in the "Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1989-1999.”
In all, between 10,301 and 11,624 children from eight to nine years old in age participated in this study. Boys made up 50.3% of the children, while girls comprised 49.7% of the participants.
The children were divided into two groups depending on the amount of recess they got in school each day. They either were in the group that received “none/minimal” recesses (or, less than one recess per day that totaled 15 minutes or less each day) or in the group that received “some” recess (or more than one recess per day that totaled more than 15 minutes each day.
Further information about the study and its results appear on page two.
