The Impact of Increased Physical Activity on Reading Achievement

The focus of the study was to determine the impact of increased physical activity immediately prior to reading instruction and increased reading achievement over a 12 week period. The subjects were elementary school children in third and fifth grade in two schools in Maryland. This study was a quasi-experimental, control-versus-experimental group comparison of a pre/posttest measure of DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency and Retell Fluency subtests and a pre/posttest measure of three subtests of the Test of Verbal Conceptualization and Fluency: Category Fluency, Letter Naming, and Trails C. Subjects received a 30-minute physical activity intervention immediately before reading instruction three days per week. Both the experimental and control groups participated in the study for 12 weeks. The control group experienced a rest-exercise-rest cycle while the experimental group experienced an exercise-rest-exercise cycle. Both groups alternated patterns every four weeks. All students in grades three and five at both schools wore pedometers to certify they were more active during exercise periods; however, data were collected on 120 total subjects, 30 from grades three and five at each school. Findings indicated that exercising before reading instruction may positively impact the reading achievement of third and fifth grade students. Data gathered for the TVCF tests showed that subjects performed better after exercising. Females showed increased scores, compared to males, regardless of grade level on reading assessments immediately after exercise sessions. When comparing the results of third grade and fifth grade students, third grade students' reading assessment scores showed larger gains following exercise sessions than the fifth grade students' reading assessment scores