Mobility may impact attention abilities in healthy term or prematurely born children at 7-years of age: protocol for an intervention controlled trial

Background Seven years of age is a milestone for learning basic knowledge that is strongly related to attention abilities such as Alerting, Orienting, and Inhibition function, allowing for appropriate adaptation to primary school. These attention abilities are also influenced by gestational age at birth in a complex manner, indicating an area of weakness in prematurely born children. Furthermore, recent studies suggest that allowing children to have freedom of movement during learning may improve their attention level and school performance. The purpose of the present study is to determine the influence of mobility on the attentional components that may impact learning abilities in children aged 7-years who were born at term and prematurely.