“It is a total body workout, but the kids get into it,” Lawler says. “You watch the kids work out on this stuff, and they're laughing and smiling while they do it. You go into a health club, and why do we have TV screens in the health clubs? We're just trying to distract them from their exercise. Well, this really distracts them from their exercise.”
Naperville Central High School offers a learning readiness physical education class to its freshmen in the first hour of the day. The class has most of the latest interactive equipment.
- The early morning active gaming classes may be helping to improve their brain skills and test scores.
- The school studied how well 15 freshmen did in a second-hour literacy class after exercising on the interactive equipment compared to 15 freshmen who took literacy class in the eighth hour of the day, long after their interactive physical education class.
- The first group of freshmen did far better in the second-hour literacy class than the second group did in eighth hour.
“The improvement in the semester is about a half year difference between those kids,” says Paul Zientarski, the instructional coordinator for Naperville Central's physical education, health and driver education department.
Cross-lateral movements during these games are especially important to brain improvement.
“We have lots of brain research that shows that anytime you do a cardiovascular workout, you manufacture new brain cells,” Zientarski says. “Anytime you incorporate music and rhythm, that helps make the neuro connections up in the brain. We're starting to see improvement in test scores in reading and math as a result of the kids using [interactive equipment] in relationship to our P.E. classes. Besides being physically fit, mentally, it's preparing them for the learning process.”
Naperville isn't the only school district that's going interactive. Sierra Vista Junior High School in Canyon Country, CA, raised money in March for new interactive equipment for its fitness center.
“We're hoping that other schools and other districts will model what we're doing,” says George Velarde, the Sierra Vista Junior High physical education department chair.
Research from one interactive gaming equipment manufacturer shows that its product can help children with autism, attention deficit disorder and dyslexia. Children develop these conditions, according to the research, from inactivity in the early stages of life. This type of equipment can help re-stimulate children or help them “catch up” to where their development needs to be.
Besides brain function and classroom improvement, using interactive equipment in exercise for school-age children helps in other areas as well. Woodland Elementary saw a 59 percent decrease in discipline incidents and a 67 percent decrease in out-of-school suspension days from the 2004-2005 school year to the 2005-2006 school year after PE4life introduced the active gaming equipment to the school.
Social skill development is also an important outcome from using active video games in the classroom. Children whose fitness level, weight, coordination or athletic skills have led them to sedentary habits and a distaste for sport thrive in an interactive video game environment. They're able to be in the same room with more athletic peers who are great at team sports and be just as good if not better at these interactive games. Ability levels are no longer barriers to social experience and fun. For more: Game Time!
