title: Sixty Minutes of Physical Activity per Day Included Within Preschool Academic Lessons Improves Early Literacy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The effects of increases in physical activity (PA) on early literacy skills in preschool children are not known.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty-four African-American preschool children from a low socioeconomic urban Head Start participated over 8 months. A 2-group, quasi-experimental design was used with one preschool site participating in the PA intervention and a second site participating as the control site. The PA program was designed to promote 300 minutes/week of moderate to vigorous PA academic lessons. Academic achievement related to early literacy and phonological awareness in the areas of rhyming and alliteration were assessed at baseline, 4 and 8 months.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Over 8 months, rhyming significantly (p < .01) improved in the PA group (173 ± 12%) compared with the controls (28 ± 8%) resulting in between group differences at 8 months (p < .01). Alliteration significantly (p < .01) improved in the PA group (52 ± 16%) compared with controls (13 ± 5%), resulting in between group differences at 8 months (p < .01). As minutes of exposure to moderate to vigorous PA increased, the change in picture naming (R(2) = .35, p < .05), alliteration (R(2) = .38, p < .05), and rhyming (R(2) = .42, p < .05), increased.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A teacher-directed PA program is effective at increasing PA and improving early literacy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL 62026. skirk@siue.edu.
authors.forename: Stacie M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Kirk
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Vadalabene Center, Suite 2616, Campus Box 1126, Edwardsville, IL 62026. ekirk@siue.edu.
authors.forename: Erik P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Kirk
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D000067010:Literacy; D008297:Male; D011204:Poverty Areas; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012574:Schools / Q000458:organization & administration*; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: African Americans; Head Start; childcare/daycare; language/speech; preschool curriculum