Martial arts, open skill ball sports, and strategy games can significantly improve children’s attention spans and executive function, according to recent research cited by education specialists. The findings challenge assumptions that declining focus is inevitable, positioning attention as a trainable skill that responds to specific types of activities.
Dr Ryan Stevenson, Co-founder and Director at Bright Heart Education, a special educational needs tutoring company, emphasized that focus represents a learnable capability rather than a fixed trait. “What people don’t realise is that focus is a trainable skill,” he stated. “The systems in the brain that handle attention and self-control respond really well to the right types of movement, play, and even certain kinds of games.”
Many parents report their child’s attention span getting shorter annually, creating concerns about academic performance and behavioral development. However, Dr Stevenson suggested rethinking what helping a child focus actually means.
“When parents say, ‘My child can’t concentrate,’ they usually mean executive function is under strain,” he explained. “That includes working memory, impulse control, and mental flexibility. Those are skills you can strengthen.”
Traditional martial arts such as karate, taekwondo, and judo mix complex movements, strict rules, and respect rituals, all placing steady demands on attention and self-control. A 2025 narrative review concluded that across multiple small studies, martial arts programs were generally associated with better attention, working memory, and inhibitory control, including in young people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Another meta-analysis comparing open skill versus closed skill exercise in children found that both types helped, but open skill sports like tennis, table tennis, football, and basketball were more effective for improving executive functions, especially inhibition and cognitive flexibility.
“You’re essentially giving the brain dozens of reps in ‘pause before you act’ every session, it’s repeated practice in stopping, choosing, and adapting under mild pressure,” Dr Stevenson said. “That’s exactly what so many children struggle with in the classroom.”
Strategy games and chess also demonstrate measurable benefits. A 2025 study of five and six year olds reported that children who took chess classes had higher visuospatial working memory scores than peers who didn’t play chess, even though both groups did similar amounts of other extracurricular activities.
The key is choosing games where kids must remember rules or patterns, wait for their turn, and think several moves ahead. “From a brain perspective, a 30-minute family game of chess, Dobble, or a strategy board game may be far better focus practice than an extra half-hour of drilling times tables,” Dr Stevenson noted.
Digital games present a more complex picture. Fast paced, reward heavy games can fragment attention, but a growing category of serious or therapeutic games is designed specifically to train executive functions. A 2024 systematic review of serious games for neurodiverse children found that many programs reported improvements in attention, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control, particularly when games were used within structured educational or therapeutic programs.
A separate 2025 review of serious games as digital therapeutics for children with ADHD concluded that such games may help improve attention, hyperactivity impulsivity, social skills, and overall executive function, with most trials reporting positive engagement from children. However, programs with evidence tend to have clear goals targeting specific attention skills, use structured sessions over multiple weeks rather than endless open play, and often form part of wider treatment plans involving clinicians or educators.
Dr Stevenson suggested parents evaluate their child’s daily activity mix by asking whether there is regular, breath raising movement, activities that force them to wait, plan, or think ahead, and opportunities to practice stopping themselves, whether holding a karate stance or pausing before a chess move.
“As an educator, I’m less interested in whether a child can sit still for an hour,” Dr Stevenson said. “I care more about whether their week gives their brain enough chances to move, plan, listen, wait, and try again. When those ingredients are there, better focus usually follows.”
The research suggests that attention difficulties may stem partly from modern lifestyles lacking activities that naturally build executive function skills. Traditional childhood activities involving physical challenges, strategic thinking, and delayed gratification provided regular focus training that many contemporary schedules omit.
