Should children drink more water?: The effects of drinking water on cognition in children

While dehydration has well-documented negative effects on adult cognition, there is little research on hydration and cognitive performance in children. We investigated whether having a drink of water improved children's performance on cognitive tasks. Fifty-eight children aged 7–9 years old were randomly allocated to a group that received additional water or a group that did not. Results showed that children who drank additional water rated themselves as significantly less thirsty than the comparison group (p = 0.002), and they performed better on visual attention tasks (letter cancellation, p = 0.02; spot the difference memory tasks, ps = 0.019 and 0.014).