Comparison of effect of Brain Gym Exercise (BGE) and Skipping Exercise (SE) on Balance and Cognitive Function in adolescents.

Title: Comparison of Effect of Brain Gym Exercise and Skipping on Balance and Cogntive Function in Adolescents.

Adolescence (11–13 years old) is a crucial developmental stage for physiological maturation and physical fitness development. An adolescent reaches a new stage of cognitive development that moves them from the concrete mode of thinking as a child to more complex thinking processes. Cognitive function encompasses the domains of perception, attention, memory, learning, decision making and language abilities. Brain Gym exercise consists of a series of movements of the whole body that supposedly activate the brain, promote neurological repatterning, and simplify whole brain learning. Skipping is a simple, affordable and interesting activity. It promotes participation and overall physical fitness within and beyond the school setting. It is a whole-body activity that requires rhythm, coordination, agility, speed, and strength. (Hockersmith MR). Their comparative effects are not studied in literature. Thus in this study, we aim to compare the effects of brain gym exercise and skipping exrecise on balance and cognitive functions in adolescent students. The sample population includes school students of standard 7 th, divisions A and B, 30 students each. The outcome measures used are Y Balance Test to assess balance, reliability 0.681- 0.908 and validity 0.89 -0.97. Stroop colour and word test, childrens edition 2003, used to assess the processing speed, errors and inhibition to cognitive interference, test retest reliability: 0.73- 0.86, Construct vaildity: R2 = .31. The division A and B will be recruited randomly in the two intervention groups, Brain gym exercise group and Skipping exercise group intervention for 5 days a week, for two weeks. The everyday session will be of 30 minutes, which will include 5 minutes of warm up, 20 minutes of intervention and breaks, 5 minutes of cool down. The data collected will be analysed using paired t test and wilcoxon rank test.