How Gymnastics Enhances Academic Performance in Elementary Students
What if there was a way to have your cake and eat it too as a parent? That’s exactly what you get when you enroll your child at U.S. Gold Gymnastics. Your cake is a fun and healthy activity for your child and getting to eat it is the proven fact that gymnastics enhances the academic performance of elementary students.
If you’re interested in improving the success of your student at school while also providing safe, entertaining and beneficial extracurricular activities, read on.
Gymnastics helps elementary students to improve their academic performance in five ways:
- Improving the focus and concentration skills in your student
- Increasing memory and cognitive function
- Aiding in the improvement of grades and standardized tests scores
- Providing a much needed release from academic pressure
- Increasing discipline, confidence and problem solving skills
How gymnastics helps improve your elementary student’s focus and concentration skills
Imagine your student trying to perfect the latest move they learned in gymnastics by putting their mind and work together toward a singular focus. Such a feat requires quite the focus and concentration skills. Add to that other gymnasts flipping, turning and jumping all around them, music blaring and their coach instructing them. You can almost imagine the smoke coming out of their ears!
When your student is enrolled in gymnastics, they have to learn to block out distractions and focus on the move or technique at hand. And they have to do it over and over again. This allows them to flex and grow those concentration skills more often and in a different way than they might in school.
How gymnastics is proven to increase your child’s memory and cognitive function
Memory and problem-solving are super important in the classroom! Fortunately, gymnastics allows students to develop these skills in a fun and engaging way. Gymnastics is also great exercise which has been shown to stimulate growth in the brain.
Children enrolled in gymnastics tend to have better memory retention, cognitive processing speed and information processing according to a study from the American Heart Association.
Gymnastics students have better grades and test scores
One study showed that students who were in gymnastics at an early age (aka, your elementary student’s age) were more likely to have better grades, higher test scores and an overall better academic performance than students not involved in gymnastics.
In another report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), physical activity was shown to improve grades and standardized test scores in elementary school children.
How gymnastics provides an escape from academic pressure for your child
Speaking of test scores, being a student can bring with it a lot of pressure. Gymnastics provides your student a time to let all of the pressure and responsibility of being a student go and just let loose on the gym floor.
Not only can gymnastics be a creative release for your child, exercise on its own is a proven stress reliever. That means that your young gymnast is learning a healthy method to deal with stress from a young age.
Finally, gymnastics provides another arena for your child to grow and succeed that isn’t based on their academic performance. This is important because having more than one area of focus creates a well-rounded child whose identity does not rise and fall solely on one thing.
How gymnastics helps students increase discipline, confidence and problem solving skills
Gymnastics requires discipline from its young athletes in order to master new moves and techniques. The continued application of self-discipline to improve in one skill can translate over to other things such as improved study habits and following through on projects and homework at school.
Likewise, the confidence a young person gets from trying and learning something new, especially something that requires such focus and discipline, will also bleed over into other areas of their lives.
As a parent, we know you’re always looking for ways to help your kids stay active, healthy and social. Gymnastics and improved academic performance also go hand and hand. It’s a win-win as a parent! If you’re considering signing up your elementary student for gymnastic classes and you live near Destin or Santa Rosa Beach, contact us at U.S. Gold Gymnastics today.
