Children who swim from a young age are sometimes more than a year ahead of their peers in their cognitive and physical development. In children studied, results surpassed expectations and indicated swimming children had an advantage when starting school. They were anywhere from six to 15 months ahead of the normal population when it came to cognitive skills, problem solving in mathematics, counting, language and following instructions. On average, swimming children were 11 months ahead of the normal population in oral expression, six months ahead in mathematics reasoning, and two months ahead in brief reading. As well as achieving physical milestones faster, the swimming children also scored significantly better in visual-motor skills. They were significantly better than the normal population in story recall (17 months ahead) and understanding directions (20 months ahead).
Swimming Enhances Cognitive Ability in Children
