Determining the Effectiveness of Exercises (Fitness and Aerobic) on the Executive Functions of Planning Ability and Working Memory in Children With Dyslexia

 Dyslexia is the most common type of learning disability, with 80% of children with learning disabilities being dyslexic. Research has shown that people with learning disabilities have difficulty with executive functions that help a person pay attention to important aspects of the task and plan to complete it. One of the processes of executive functions is the ability to plan, which is the ability to achieve the goal systematically. Another process of executive functions is working memory, which is important for reasoning and guidance, decision–making, and behavior. Evidence has shown that exercise is a good way to treat many disorders and problems. Exercise can be combined with other therapies and has beneficial effects on executive functions such as planning, working memory, problem–solving, etc. Therefore, the present study aimed to determine the effectiveness of exercise (aerobics and fitness) on the executive functions of the problem–solving process, speed of action, planning and working memory in dyslexic children.

This quasi–experimental study has a pretest–posttest design with a control group. The statistical population consisted of all students (girl and boy) living in Tehran City, Iran, during 2020. A total of 24 students were selected by the available sampling method and randomly assigned into experimental (n=12) and control groups (n=12). The inclusion criteria were as follows: not having a disability, having difficulty reading, lacking psychological and neurological problems, studying in normal schools in Tehran, not having acute and chronic physical diseases, not participating in other treatment programs at the same time, and not receiving individual counseling or drug therapy. The exclusion criteria were as follows: absence of more than two sessions and not being satisfied with the participation in the sessions. Research instruments included the Reading and Dyslexia Test (NEMA) (Kormi Nouri & Moradi, 2005), London Tower Test (Shallice, 1982), and N–Back Test (Kirchner, 1958). Exercise intervention included fitness and aerobics and was performed on the experimental group 3 sessions per week, 1 hour per session for 3 months. For data analysis, univariate covariance analysis and its assumptions and t test comparing the means of two independent groups were used in SPSS version 24 software at a significance level of 0.05.

 The results showed that after removing the effect of the pretest, significant differences were observed between the average scores of variables of executive functions of planning (p=0.002) and working memory (p=0.038) of the experimental and control groups in the posttest. The results showed that group effect explained 62% of the changes in the planning variable and 36% of the changes in the working memory.

 According to the findings, exercise intervention, including fitness and aerobics is effective in the planning and working memory of dyslexic children.