More recesses required for US schoolchildren

New York, January 29: All work and no play does indeed make a child a dull kid. A new American study found that children are more likely to behave nice in the classroom if they get reasonable breaks during the school hours.

Many schools in United States have cut back on recess time in order to meet the test score requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

The researchers wrote, "The available research suggests that recess may play an important role in the learning, social development, and health of children in elementary school."

The lead author of the study, Dr. Romina Mariel Barros, M.D., of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, United States and her team looked at national database of about 11,000 schoolchildren ages 8 and nine years and their teachers' ratings on the students’ class behavior. The data had been from children participating in the "Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1989-1999.”

The kids had either one of two levels of recesses; none or minimal recesses -- 1 to 15 minutes per day or some recess. Children who had more recess behaved better in school, according to a teacher rating system.

Dr. Barros also found that 30 percent of kids who had no recess or minimal recess of less than 15 minutes per day were commonly black, from poor families, lived in large cities in the South or Northeast.

Adding further the researchers said, "This raises concern in light of evidence that many children from disadvantaged backgrounds are not free to roam their neighborhoods or even their own yards unless they are accompanied by adults."

"For many of these children, recess periods may be the only opportunity for them to practice their social skills with other children," they said.

Nearly two-thirds of the lower socioeconomic group had physical activity periods only once or twice a week, putting them at greater risk of becoming overweight or obese.

The study appears in the February issue of the journal Pediatric.