Previous research has shown that cognitive
performance declines in adults that are dehydrated. More recently, studies into
the effects of water consumption have shown that cognitive performance improves
in schoolchildren after having a drink. However, as this research area is still
in its infancy, it is not yet possible to determine which cognitive skills are
consistently sensitive to water consumption. Therefore, we did a small pilot
study looking at the effect of water consumption in schoolchildren on a range
of cognitive and motor skills.
A group of 15 children between the ages of
8 and 9 years old were given tasks to complete on two occasions. On one
occasion they were not given a drink and on the other occasion they were given
a 250ml bottle of water to drink, twenty minutes before the testing began. In
the ‘no water’ condition none of the children had a drink and in the ‘water’
condition 7 of the 15 children drank the entire 250ml of water whilst the rest
drank varying amounts. The mean amount that they drank was 168ml. The children were
tested in small groups of 3 or 4 and the conditions were counterbalanced. The
children all completed a letter cancellation task, a ball catching task,
step-ups and a Wii game. The Wii game called ‘Ravin Rabbids’ was a whack-a-mole
style game in which the children had to whack a rabbit every time it stood up
using a downward motion with the Wii control. The game required hand eye
coordination skills.
The results showed that in the ‘water
condition’ the children were less thirsty but no happier. In the letter
cancellation task the children performed significantly better in the ‘water’
condition than the ‘no water’ condition; they correctly identified more
targets. The children also got a significantly higher score in the ‘ Ravin
Rabbids’ Wii game in the ‘water’ condition. There was no immediately apparent
benefit of drinking water in the ball throwing and step-up tasks although
exploratory analysis showed that children drinking more than 200ml of water did
significantly better in the ball throwing and ‘Ravin Rabbid’ Wii game than
those who drank less than 100ml. None of the children drank between 100 and
200ml of water.
The results show that children’s
performance improves in tasks requiring motor skills and visual attention and
these results are consistent with previous studies of school children. What is
still to be determined is whether it is purely the motor skills, purely the
visual attention, a combination of both or indeed some underlying skill such as
speed of processing that is sensitive to water consumption.
This study was published in Education and
Health and presented at the Natural Hydration Council annual meeting. There has
also been some media interest and Caroline Edmonds has recently completed a
round of radio interviews about the effects of water consumption in children.
Full article reference Booth, P., Taylor, B. and Edmonds, C. J.
(2012) 'Water supplementation improves visual attention and fine motor skills
in schoolchildren'. Education and Health, 30(3), pp. 75-79.
Paula Booth
