We found associations between organised sport participation and numeracy outcomes only. On average, children with reported sports participation at all 'waves' had 7% higher PAT Maths and 5% higher NAPLAN numeracy scores following adjustment for sociodemographic confounders. These differences concur with conclusions from a systematic review suggesting that organised sports participation may increase children's numeracy performance by 8% (Bird et al., 2013). A recent 12-month intervention study of Grade 3 children in the Netherlands found that children in the physical activity intervention group achieved greater improvements in mathematics than children in the control group (Mulderij-Wismans et al., 2015). Similarly, among Australian Grade 5 children, Maher et al. (2016) reported better numeracy and writing, but not improved grammar, reading or spelling performance among Australian children with high moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. It has been shown that aerobic exercise selectively activates the left frontoparietal cortex (Colcombe et al., 2006; Marks et al., 2007), a region of the brain involved in mathematical operations in children (Göbel et al., 2004; Rivera et al., 2005), potentially facilitating improved numeracy skills.
In addition, because sport requires children to apply mathematical concepts to real-life situations, transferability to numeracy skills may be enhanced (Bird et al., 2013). When playing sports, children practise computations such as 'how much time is left in the game?' or 'how many more points do we need to win?' It is possible that sport may not afford the same applied literacy-based learning opportunities.
Note: 'waves' refers to groups of children completing tests over a series of years.