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This last article is actually an article review itself. Within this article review, the authors cite multiple other articles written about the timing of recess. According to multiple studies, recess should be conducted at regular intervals to account for the fact that students' attention spans diminish after 50 minutes.

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In this article, which was published in a journal in Texas, Jean Madigan defends recess with multiple studies and research represented. Some of the more unique and interesting findings presented in this article are the fact that students should have a break every 90 minutes to aid in cognition, regular recess led to improvements for dyslexic students, and regular exposure to daylight helps regulate sleep.

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This article, like many others posted here, explain the benefits of recess for elementary aged children. The benefits are categorized by cognitive/academic, physical, and social/emotional. This article points out that even older students, adolescents, need a break and perform better academically. This article also states that schools that have a more urban or minority population tend to have less recess.

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Abstract

Recess is at the heart of a vigorous debate over the role of schools in promoting the optimal development of the whole child. A growing trend toward reallocating time in school to accentuate the more academic subjects has put this important facet of a child's school day at risk. Recess serves as a necessary break from the rigors of concentrated, academic challenges in the classroom. But equally important is the fact that safe and well-supervised recess offers cognitive, social, emotional, and physical benefits that may not be fully appreciated when a decision is made to diminish it. Recess is unique from, and a complement to, physical education-not a substitute for it. The American Academy of Pediatrics believes that recess is a crucial and necessary component of a child's development and, as such, it should not be withheld for punitive or academic reasons.

The Benefits of Recess for the Whole Child

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines recess as "regularly scheduled periods within the elementary school day for unstructured physical activity and play." The literature examining the global benefits of recess for a child's cognitive, emotional, physical, and social well-being has recently been reviewed. Yet, recent surveys and studies have indicated a trend toward reducing recess to accommodate additional time for academic subjects in addition to its withdrawal for punitive or behavioral reasons. ⁻ Furthermore, the period allotted to recess decreases as the child ages and is less abundant among children of lower socioeconomic status and in the urban setting.,

Just as physical education and physical fitness have well-recognized benefits for personal and academic performance, recess offers its own, unique benefits. Recess represents an essential, planned respite from rigorous cognitive tasks. It affords a time to rest, play, imagine, think, move, and socialize. ⁻ After recess, for children or after a corresponding break time for adolescents, students are more attentive and better able to perform cognitively. ⁻ In addition, recess helps young children to develop social skills that are otherwise not acquired in the more structured classroom environment.,,

Cognitive/Academic Benefits

Children develop intellectual constructs and cognitive understanding through interactive, manipulative experiences. This type of exploratory experience is a feature of play in an unstructured social environment., Optimal cognitive processing in a child necessitates a period of interruption after a period of concentrated instruction., The benefits of these interruptions are best served by unstructured breaks rather than by merely shifting from 1 cognitive task to another to diminish stresses and distractions that interfere with cognitive processing.,,, Several studies demonstrated that recess, whether performed indoors or outdoors, made children more attentive and more productive in the classroom. ⁻,,, This finding was true even though, in many cases, the students spent much of their recess time socializing. In fact, a student's ability to refocus cognitively was shown to be stimulated more by the break from the classroom than by the mode of activity that occurred during that break; any type of activity at recess benefited cognitive performance afterward. Although specified time afforded for recess diminishes with age, the benefits of periodic breaks in the academic day to optimize cognitive processing applies equally to adolescents and to younger children.

Social and Emotional Benefits

Recess promotes social and emotional learning and development for children by offering them a time to engage in peer interactions in which they practice and role play essential social skills.,,,, This type of activity, under adult supervision, extends teaching in the classroom to augment the school's social climate. Through play at recess, children learn valuable communication skills, including negotiation, cooperation, sharing, and problem solving as well as coping skills, such as perseverance and self-control. ⁻,,, These skills become fundamental, lifelong personal tools. Recess offers a child a necessary, socially structured means for managing stress. By adapting and adjusting to the complex school environment, children augment and extend their cognitive development in the classroom.,

Physical Benefits

There is a wealth of literature published on the need for and benefit of physical activity and fitness, not only for a child's physical well-being but also for academic and social maturation.,,⁻ Although not all children play vigorously at recess, it does provide the opportunity for children to be active in the mode of their choosing and to practice movement and motor skills. Importantly, recess affords young children free activity for the sheer joy of it. Even minor movement during recess counterbalances sedentary time at school and at home and helps the child achieve the recommended 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per day, a standard strongly supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) policy, which can help lower risk of obesity.,,⁻

Safety and Supervision

A child's safety during recess is a concern for many parents, teachers, and administrators. Some schools even have chosen to ban games or activities deemed unsafe and, in some cases, to discontinue recess altogether in light of the many issues connected with child safety., Although schools should ban games and activities that are unsafe, they should not discontinue recess altogether just because of concerns connected with child safety. There are measures schools can take to address these concerns and protect children while still preserving play during recess.,,,,,, Compliance with the Consumer Product Safety Commission's Playground Safety Handbook ( http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PUBS/325.pdf) will help to ensure proper maintenance of playground equipment that meets all of the following applicable federal guidelines:

1. Provision of adequate safe spaces and facilities.

2. Maintenance of developmentally appropriate equipment with regular inspections.

3. Establishment and enforcement of safety rules.

4. Implementation of recess curriculum in physical education classes to teach games, rules, and conflict resolution.

5. Establishment of a school-wide, clear policy to prevent bullying or aggressive behavior.

6. Provision of adequate supervision by qualified adults who can intervene in the event a child's physical or emotional safety is in jeopardy.

Some playgrounds in areas with a high risk of violence may require additional protective measures to ensure the safety of children.

The Emerging Issue of Structured Recess

Structured recess is a recess based on structured play, during which games and physical activities are taught and led by a trained adult (teachers, school staff, or volunteers). Proponents for structured recess note that children often need help in developing games and require suggestions and encouragement to participate in physical activities. Recently, policy makers and funding organizations have called for more opportunities for daily activity as a means to address childhood obesity. These statements have strengthened the argument to maintain or reinstate recess as an integral component of the school day.,,, Although this new dimension to the recess debate has increased attention on its role, it also has created tension. Some have promoted recess time as a solution for increasing children's physical activity and combating obesity. If recess assumes such a role, then, like physical education, it will need to be planned and directed to ensure that all children are participating in moderately vigorous physical activity.,,,,, Pediatric health care providers, parents, and school officials should be cognizant, however, that in designing a structured recess, they will sacrifice the notion of recess as an unstructured but supervised break that belongs to the child; that is, a time for the child to make a personal choice between sedentary, physical, creative, or social options.,⁻,,⁻,,,, However, there are many cited benefits of structured recess to consider, including:

Older elementary children may benefit from game instruction and encouragement for total class inclusion.

Children can be coached to develop interpersonal skills for appropriate conflict resolution.

More children can actively participate in regular activity, irrespective of skill level.

Anecdotally, teachers have reported improved behavior and attention in the classroom after vigorous structured recess.

To be effective, structured recess requires that school personnel (or volunteers) receive adequate training so that they are able to address and encourage the diverse needs of all students., One aspect of supervision should be to facilitate social relationships among children by encouraging inclusiveness in games. A problem arises when the structured activities of recess are promoted as a replacement for the child's physical education requirement. The replacement of physical education by recess threatens students' instruction in and acquisition of new motor skills, exploration of sports and rules, and a concept of lifelong physical fitness.,,

There are ways to encourage a physically active recess without necessarily adding structured, planned, adult-led games, such as offering attractive, safe playground equipment to stimulate free play; establishing games/boundaries painted on the playground; or instructing children in games, such as four square or hopscotch.,, These types of activities can range from fully structured (with the adult directing and requiring participation) to partly unstructured (with adults providing supervision and initial instruction) to fully unstructured (supervision and social guidance). In structured, partly structured, or unstructured environments, activity levels vary widely on the basis of school policy, equipment provided, encouragement, age group, gender, and race.,,,, Consequently, the potential benefits of mandatory participation of all children in a purely structured recess must be weighed against the potential social and emotional trade-off of limiting acquisition of important developmental skills. Whichever style is chosen, recess should be viewed as a supplement to motor skill acquisition in physical education class.,,,,

Duration and Timing of Recess

In the United States, the duration and timing of recess periods vary by age, grade, school district, and sometimes by building., The majority of elementary schools that offer lunch-time recess do so after the students eat lunch.,,⁻ Many school wellness councils have adopted the "Recess Before Lunch" concept which stems from studies that examined food waste by students in relation to the timing of their recess. ⁻ When students have recess before lunch, more time is taken for lunch and less food is wasted. In addition, teachers and researchers noted an improvement in the student behavior at meal time, which carried into the classroom in the afternoon. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Department of Agriculture support the concept of scheduling recess before lunch as part of a school's wellness policy.,

Peer-reviewed research has examined the timing and type of activity during recess and chronicled the many benefits of recess for children, without establishing an optimal required duration.,,,,,, There is consensus about the need for regularly scheduled recess based on national guidelines, even though the length of the recess period has not been firmly established. In schools, the length specified for recess ranges widely, from 20 to 60 minutes per day., In other countries, such as Japan, primary school-aged children have a 10- to 15-minute break every hour, and this is thought to reflect the fact that attention spans begin to wane after 40 to 50 minutes of intense instruction. On the basis of this premise, to maximize cognitive benefits, recess should be scheduled at regular intervals, providing children sufficient time to regain their focus before instruction continues.

Conclusions

School attendance represents a unique opportunity to address nutrition and physical fitness. Each day, 55 million US students attend school, which constitutes nearly one-half of their wakeful hours. In light of rising rates of overweight and obesity, schools have come under increased scrutiny. Within the school environment, there are competing calls for stricter standards and greater academic achievement as well as calls for schools to provide greater opportunities for nonsedentary daily activity. Even with ample evidence of a whole-child benefit from recess, significant external pressures, such as standardized cognitive testing mandated by educational reforms, have led some to view recess as time that would be better spent on academics. Time previously dedicated to daily activity in school, such as physical education and recess, is being reallocated to make way for additional academic instruction.

Ironically, minimizing or eliminating recess may be counterproductive to academic achievement, as a growing body of evidence suggests that recess promotes not only physical health and social development but also cognitive performance., Although recess and physical education both promote activity and a healthy lifestyle, it is only supervised but unstructured recess that offers children the opportunity to actually play creatively. In this sense, then, pediatricians' support of recess is an extension of the AAP's policy statement supporting free play as a fundamental component of a child's normal growth and development. On the basis of an abundance of scientific studies, withholding recess for punitive or academic reasons would seem to be counterproductive to the intended outcomes and may have unintended consequences in relation to a child's acquisition of important life skills.

Lead Authors

Robert Murray, MD

Catherine Ramstetter, PhD

Council on School Health Executive Committee, 2011-2012

Cynthia Devore, MD, Chairperson

Mandy Allison, MD, MSPH

Richard Ancona, MD

Stephen Barnett, MD

Robert Gunther, MD, MPH

Breena Welch Holmes, MD

Jeffrey Lamont, MD

Mark Minier, MD

Jeffery Okamoto, MD

Lani Wheeler, MD

Thomas Young, MD

Former Executive Committee Member

Robert Murray, MD, Immediate Past Chairperson

Consultant

Catherine Ramstetter, PhD

Liaisons

Mary Vernon-Smiley, MD, MPH - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Adolescent and School Health

Linda Grant, MD, MPH - American School Health Association

Veda Johnson, MD - National Assembly on School-Based Health Care

Carolyn Duff, RN, MS, NCSN - National Association of School Nurses

Former Liaison

Linda Davis-Alldritt, RN, MA, PHN - National Association of School Nurses

Staff

Madra Guinn-Jones, MPH

Footnotes

This document is copyrighted and is property of the American Academy of Pediatrics and its Board of Directors. All authors have filed conflict of interest statements with the American Academy of Pediatrics. Any conflicts have been resolved through a process approved by the Board of Directors. The American Academy of Pediatrics has neither solicited nor accepted any commercial involvement in the development of the content of this publication.

All policy statements from the American Academy of Pediatrics automatically expire 5 years after publication unless reaffirmed, revised, or retired at or before that time.

View Abstract

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Recess is at the heart of a vigorous debate over the role of schools in promoting the optimal development of the whole child. A growing trend toward reallocating time in school to accentuate the more academic subjects has put this important facet of a child's school day at risk.

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In this experiment, Pellegrini, Huberty, & Jones look at three groups of students in grades K, 2, & 4. These researchers submit that students' inattention before recess is due to play deprivation. The research also concludes that recess behaviors do not relate significantly to post-recess behavior in class.

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The Effects of Recess Timing on Children's Playground and Classroom Behaviors - A. D. Pellegrini, Patti Davis Huberty, Ithel Jones, 1995

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Three field experiments were conducted to determine the effects of different recess timing regimens on children's classroom and recess behaviors. Experiment 1 i...

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Barros, Silver, & Stein studied over 11,000 8-9 year olds. Half of this group had at least one 15 minute recess a day, while the other group did not receive any recess. Those students who had recess received reports of better classroom behavior from their teachers. It is recommended that elementary aged children have at least one recess a day. However, there was no significant variation in teachers' behavior reports for multiple recesses.

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Abstract

OBJECTIVES. This study examines the amount of recess that children 8 to 9 years of age receive in the United States and compares the group classroom behavior of children receiving daily recess with that of children not receiving daily recess.

METHODS. This is a secondary analysis of a public-use data set, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999, third-grade data set. Children were categorized into 2 levels of recess exposure, that is, none/minimal break (<1 break of 15 minutes/day) or some recess. Some recess was further categorized into 5 levels on the basis of frequency and duration of recess. Child, parent, school, and classroom characteristics of those with and without recess were compared. The group classroom behavior was assessed by using the teacher's rating of class behavior.

RESULTS. Complete data were available for 10301 to 11624 children 8 to 9 years of age. There were equal numbers of boys and girls (boys: 50.3%). Children exposed to none/minimal break (30%) were much more likely to be black, to be from families with lower incomes and lower levels of education, to live in large cities, to be from the Northeast or South, and to attend public school, compared with those with recess. Teacher's rating of classroom behavior scores were better for children with some recess than for those with none/minimal break. This finding was maintained in multivariate regression analysis. However, among children receiving daily recess, the teacher's rating of class behavior scores did not differ significantly according to the level of exposure.

CONCLUSIONS. These results indicated that, among 8- to 9-year-old children, having ≥1 daily recess period of >15 minutes in length was associated with better teacher's rating of class behavior scores. This study suggests that schoolchildren in this age group should be provided with daily recess.

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School Recess and Group Classroom Behavior

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OBJECTIVES. This study examines the amount of recess that children 8 to 9 years of age receive in the United States and compares the group classroom behavior of children receiving daily recess with that of children not receiving daily recess. METHODS.

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Here is research presented in the "Journal of School Health".

The researchers in this study concluded that students perform a

great deal of physical activity during recess (as opposed to sedentary behavior). The researchers also concluded that students were more likely to engage in physical activity if there was good quality playground equipment nearby.

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Leisure-Time Physical Activity in Elementary Schools: Analysis of Contextual Conditions - McKenzie - 2010 - Journal of School Health - Wiley Online Library

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This research was conducted by Active Living Research. The

conclusions from this research discuss the benefits to not only

having recess, but to having multiple recesses spread apart from

other in the day. The findings of this study show that students who

have multiple recesses with more breaks perform better in the

classroom than those who do not.

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This article by scholastic has interesting information about the

number of schools that actually have recess and the number that

do not now because of increased pressure to perform on test. It

also addresses the notion of taking recess away from children with

behavior problems.

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You don't have permission to access "http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/recess-makes-kids-smarter" on this server.
Reference #18.1ca93817.1656789810.4a855fc9

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This article by cbsnews.com also highlights the benefits

of recess for primary school children. The article also sites

a study by the American Academy of Pediatrics which discusses

the physical benefits of recess in light of the obesity epidemic in

America.

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Recess is an essential part of a child's school day that should never be taken away as punishment if a kid misbehaves or has poor academic performance, the American Academy of Pediatrics said Monday.

The academy released its first ever position policy on recess in school, which it calls a necessary break from the physical and mental demands of a typical day at school. The statement, which was published online Dec. 31 in Pediatrics, adds that recess should be a period of free, unstructured play.

Children may gain cognitive, physical, emotional and social benefits from the daily activity as well, according to the statement.

Policy co-author Dr. Robert Murray, a professor of pediatric nutrition at The Ohio State University, told CBSNews.com that children -- like adults -- need ample time to decompress and process new information throughout a busy day.

"Kids do much better when they get breaks in the day," he said.

For physical benefits, Murray concedes that recess alone won't solve the obesity problem, but research suggests 60 minutes of physical activity a day can cumulatively play a valuable role in the prevention and treatment of childhood obesity.

More than one-third of U.S. children were considered overweight or obese, according to government estimates. But that doesn't mean recess should consist of organized calisthenics and exercise to make America's youth more active, the authors said.

"Importantly, recess should be used as a complement to physical education classes, not a substitute," policy statement co-author Dr. Catherine Ramstetter, a health educator at The Christ College of Nursing and Health Sciences in Cincinnati, told CBSNews.com in an email.

That's because unstructured play is so important to a child's development, said the policy's authors. Murray said when he and Ramstetter first started the study, they thought structured recess was more ideal because it provided an organized way to boost physical activity.

However, their research found evidence that unstructured recess provides psychosocial benefits where kids get to be creative and explore different things, which for some kids can also include physical activity. But even young girls chatting and braiding their hair can provide that necessary type of decompression children need to gain benefits, even without the presence of physical activity, said Murray.

"With kids so highly structured today, they don't have many opportunities to explore creative play," he said.

The authors state that taking away recess as punishment could have negative consequences and further stunt children's academic achievement.

"Schools ought to examine other discipline methods, and look for ways to provide safe and properly supervised recess for all children," said Ramstetter.

Recess, however, also carries another risk for children that pediatricians pay close attention to: bullying. Both Ramstetter and Murray said it's critical that children are supervised by well-trained staff during recess even if there aren't structured activities.

More than 55 million U.S. students attend school each year. Reuters reported that a 2011 study in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine that found up to one-third of the1,800 elementary schools surveyed did not offer recess to their third grade classes.

Recognizing the need for schools -- on ever-more-stretched budgets and time constraints -- to foster academic achievement amid new calls to support physical activity/obesity prevention, our study suggests that recess promotes a healthy learning environment and can help schools in meeting both demands," concluded Ramstetter.

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Recess a crucial part of school day, says American Academy of Pediatrics

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Recess is an essential part of a child's school day that should never be taken away as punishment if a kid misbehaves or has poor academic performance, the American Academy of Pediatrics said Monday. The academy released its first ever position policy on recess in school, which it calls a necessary break from the physical and mental demands of a typical day at school.

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Researching and observing the

effects of additional recess as

related to academic achievement.

My school (a 5-6 building) used to

have two recesses a day: one right

after lunch and one in the afternoon.

To avoid another transition time, it

was decided last year that all of the

recess time would be rolled into one

large recess directly after lunch. I am

concerned for two reasons. First, the

afternoons are not very productive

because the students tire easily. Also,

the extended break with their peers

(almost an hour) leads to many discipline

issues and conflicts. I am wondering what

the effects would be if we split up the

recess time into two, or maybe even

three, breaks throughout the day (without

adding extra time to the school day).

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Here is an interesting article highlighting the benefits of recess.

Anthony Pellegrini and Catherine Bohn-Gettler actually make the

case that recess helps primary aged children attend better in the

classroom. They also argue that the reduction in recess is a result

of schools' attempts to increase their scores on standardized

assessments.