Educator's Toolkit to promote a Healthy Child

     Organized sports are associated with positive success and attitudes towards school. (Martin, p 3) For example it may lead to short-term benefits of concentration, cognitive functioning. Studies have shown that exercise promotes brain growth-factors and increased blood flow to the cortex of the brain. The cortex is an area for serious second thoughts and sense of danger, (Wallis, Dell, 2004) which matures last in the brain. These mechanisms are important for cognitive functions (Martin, p 3).

    Having the right balance of nutrition is also important. Slight undernutrition (Turfs University School of Nutrition Science and Policy, 1998) leads to permanent inhibition of physical growth and cognitive function. An example of undernutrition is iron deficiency, which affects a child's learning, attention, and memory. There is a strong correlation of undernutrition of students with low-income family, so it is important to have a support system where the child will often stay.

    Childhood and puberty is when muscle and motor groups quickly develop (Learning and Development, 2015). In ages 11 to 19, large muscle groups develop and in youth, fine motor groups develop. A growth spurt, a period of fast skeletal growth, begins in ages 10 to 12 in girls and 12 to 14 in boys and complete at age 17 to 19 in girls, 20 in boys. (American Psychological Association, 2002, p 7).