Influence of physical activity on cognitive and emotional development in preschool children. A review of the literature

Abstract

The aim of this study was to conduct a literature review to investigate the influence of physical activity on the cognitive and emotional development of preschool children. To this end, a search for articles and studies was conducted in various databases in order to select those that met the search requirements. These requirements included that the studies should be experimental or quasi-experimental, and should involve a sample of children under 6 years of age. Ten studies were selected that met these requirements. After analysing each of them, it was observed that most of the results obtained showed a positive relationship between physical activity and cognitive and emotional development. However, the need for further research on this topic is highlighted due to the scarcity of related studies at such young ages and some methodological shortcomings in the studies analysed.