--- title: Cognitive Development Children School: How Green Spaces Help Brains description: Exposure to green space at a young age may aid children's cognitive development, according to a landmark new study in the journal PNAS. canonical: https://time.com/3921706/green-spaces-at-school-may-help-kids-brains/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-15T22:02:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:58:55.244Z article:section: Health og:title: Cognitive Development Children School: How Green Spaces Help Brains og:description: Exposure to green space at a young age may aid children's cognitive development, according to a landmark new study in the journal PNAS. og:url: https://time.com/3921706/green-spaces-at-school-may-help-kids-brains/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Cognitive Development Children School: How Green Spaces Help Brains twitter:description: Exposure to green space at a young age may aid children's cognitive development, according to a landmark new study in the journal PNAS. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Green Spaces at School May Help Kids' Brains > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: Doctor Fights For Mental Health in Warzone: Loses [Watch (HLS stream): Doctor Fights For Mental Health in Warzone: Loses](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/B2ce7u5n.m3u8) (3:59)  _Published 2014-08-01. Doctor Fights For Mental Health in Warzone: Loses_  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jun 15, 2015 10:02 PM UTC  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jun 15, 2015 10:02 PM UTC Exposure to green space at a young age may aid children’s cognitive development, according to a new [study](http://www.pnas.org/embargo?embargoed-uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pnas.org%2Fcontent%2Fearly%2F2015%2F06%2F09%2F1503402112) in the journal _PNAS_. Researchers, who evaluated data on nearly 2,600 Barcelona schoolchildren between the ages of 7 and 10, found that exposure to green space was correlated with improved working memory and decreased inattentiveness. The results were most remarkable when there was more green space at school. Part of the association can be connected to traffic pollution, which accounted for somewhere between 20% and 65% the effect of being exposed to green space. Green space at school may also increase physical activity and reduce noise, according to the study. Overall, a significant increase in green space at school could end the impairment of nearly 9% of students with impaired working memory, according to the researchers. The researchers used satellite data to assess the greenness of both children’s homes and their schools. Overall, a significant increase in exposure to green spaces resulted in a 5% increase in the development of children’s working memory after a one-year period, as well as a 1% decrease in inattentiveness. Previous research has shown associations between green space and mental and physical health but this is the first study to suggest that exposure to green spaces may aid cognition. 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