Three Changes You Can Make to Help Improve Your Child’s Performance
Far too often we parents overcomplicate things. Especially when it comes to helping our kids perform at their best. My wife often must remind me of this. She is the master of doing the simple things better.
It’s so tempting for me to dive into every detail of my child’s performance to figure out all the different hacks I can help them with to improve. However, none of those performance hacks matter if I don’t help them do three simple things better.
A clinical research study on the factors that improve a child’s performance (Lancet Child & Adolescent Health Journal) makes this “do simple better” point very clear.
The participants in this study included 4524 US children aged 8–11 years. The researchers compared the collected data to the Canadian 24 hour movement behavior guidelines. The guidelines tracked were as follows:
1) Uninterrupted 9 to 11 hours of sleep per night for those aged 5–13 years and 8 to 10 hours per night for those aged 14–17 years, with consistent bed and wake-up times
2) An accumulation of at least 60 minutes per day of moderate to vigorous physical activity involving a variety of aerobic activities. Vigorous physical activities and muscle and bone strengthening activities should each be incorporated at least 3 days per week
3) No more than 2 hours per day of recreational screen time
Researchers found that only 5% of the children met all three guidelines. In addition, those in the 5% had superior performance in memory, thinking, and language test over the children who met none of the guidelines. What’s more, performance improved with each additional recommendation met.
The takeaway from this research is a simple prescription for parents. Consistently help your children get:
- 9 hours of sleep.
- 60 minutes of exercise.
- Less than 2 hours of screen time per day.