Conectar Jugando: Board Games in Elementary Classrooms (6-12 Years Old) to Improve Executive Functions

NCT05143294 | Unknown DMC

• 1 other identifier: NCT2021CJA
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 1,200
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Executive functions are cognitive processes that have been frequently related to adequate academic performance in the scientific literature. Current research aimed at training executive functions has found promising results using the modern board game as a cognitive tool in children. Considering the growing interest of teachers in this playful and possibly educational and cognitive resource, a game program for cognitive purposes has been designed to be used in primary classrooms. The main objective of the present study is to test the efficacy of a cognitive training program in the classroom based on modern board games in primary school students from ordinary schools (6 to 12 years old). For this, there will be an experimental group that will carry out the game program "Conectar Jugando" in the classroom implemented by the teachers of the participating centers, and a control group that will be on standby and will be compensated by carrying out the game program at the finalize the post-intervention evaluation. The classes of each school stage will be randomly assigned to an experimental group and a passive control group in each of the participating schools.

Conditions

Cognitive Change; Child Development

Keywords

executive function; modern board games; cognitive training; school-age children

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (4)

• Visuospatial keep track task (Tamnes et al., 2010)

  Change in visuospatial updating from baseline to post intervention. It consists of 9 trials of increasing difficulty in which colored faces move across the screen and it is necessary to remember the last position of each one.

  Baseline and post intervention (after 6 weeks)

• Inhibition - Child Fish Flanker Task (Benzing et al., 2018)

  Change in inhibition from baseline to post intervention. It is an adaptation of the classic Flanker Task in which fish must be fed by pressing the key that indicates the direction of the central fish. The inhibition measure is obtained by subtracting the reaction time of the pure block of congruent tests (5 fish going in the same direction) from the standard block that includes congruent and incongruent tests (the 4 fish that accompany the central fish can go in the same direction or the opposite).

  Baseline and Post-intervention (after 6 weeks)

• Shifting - Child Fish Flanker Task (Benzing et al., 2018)

  Change in shifting from baseline to post intervention. To obtain this measure, a mixed block is included in the fish flanker task in which trials of yellow fish and trials of red fish appear. When the fish are red, the central fish should be fed. When the fish are yellow, the fish from the sides should be fed. For both conditions, congruent and incongruent tests are presented. The subtraction of the reaction time from the standard block (only congruent and incongruent reds) to the mixed block (reds and yellows) gives rise to the shifting measure.

  Baseline and Post-intervention (after 6 weeks)

• PREDISCAL (Pina-Paredes et al., 2020)

  Change in academic competences from baseline to post intervention. Screening test that assesses Reading Fluency, Mathematical Fluency and Calculus in three timed written tasks.

  Baseline and Post-intervention (after 6 weeks)

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• ATENTO - Family (Luque & Sánchez-Sánchez, 2019)

  Baseline and Post-intervention (after 6 weeks)

Other Outcomes (4)

• Reasoning - TONI-4 (Ruíz-Fernández, 2019)

  Baseline

• Hollingshead Index (Hollingshead, 1975)

  Baseline

• The Parent Play Beliefs Scale (PPBS) (Fogle & Mendez, 2006)

  Baseline and Post-intervention (after 6 weeks)

Study Arms (2)

Modern board and card games group

EXPERIMENTAL

The program consisted of 12 one-hour intervention sessions. The sessions were biweekly with a total duration of 6 weeks. The modern board and card games used in the program were Bee Alert (Knizia, 2012), Monster Match (Gruhl \& Weir, 2018), Kaleidos Junior (Albertarelli, 1997), Sherlock Express (Kermarrec, 2019), Alles Kanone! (Knizia, 2007), Halli Galli (Shafir, 1990), Bananazul (Warsch, 2019), Blurble (Bernard, 2013), La Morada Maldita (Ortiz, 2020), Dice Academy (Gobert, 2019) and Streams (Itsubaki, 2011). Play sessions will be held in subgroups of 3-5 children within the class group. In each session, each subgroup will play two games. The games used in the program have an average duration of approximately 20-30 minutes (filler games). All subgroups will play all games in the program the same number of times with the same rules. The game program will be the same in all participating centers to guarantee the homogeneity of its implementation.

Behavioral: Conectar Jugando Classroom Program

Wait-list group

NO INTERVENTION

Wait-list. They will do the usual classes without modern board games. At the end of the post-intervention evaluation, the Conectar Jugando game program will be implemented under the same conditions as the experimental group.

Interventions

Conectar Jugando Classroom Program BEHAVIORAL

Modern Board Games Intervention in Elementary Classrooms

Modern board and card games group

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 5 Years - 13 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• be enrolled in an ordinary educational center, whether public, private or subsidized
• provide informed consent from both parents and the participant's agreement to participate in the study

You may not qualify if:

• comprehension difficulties due to language reasons
• sensory difficulties that make it impossible to carry out the program activities

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Brain In Game scientific-technical service: lead
• Atención, Familia, Infancia, Mayores (AFIM21): collaborator
• Mercurio Distribuciones: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Faculty of Education, Psychology and Social Work; University of Lleida

Lleida, 25001, Spain

Location

Related Publications (3)

• Barker JE, Semenov AD, Michaelson L, Provan LS, Snyder HR, Munakata Y. Less-structured time in children's daily lives predicts self-directed executive functioning. Front Psychol. 2014 Jun 17;5:593. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00593. eCollection 2014.

  PMID: 25071617 BACKGROUND

• Benzing V, Schmidt M, Jager K, Egger F, Conzelmann A, Roebers CM. A classroom intervention to improve executive functions in late primary school children: Too 'old' for improvements? Br J Educ Psychol. 2019 Jun;89(2):225-238. doi: 10.1111/bjep.12232. Epub 2018 Jun 26.

  PMID: 29947142 BACKGROUND

• Tamnes CK, Ostby Y, Walhovd KB, Westlye LT, Due-Tonnessen P, Fjell AM. Neuroanatomical correlates of executive functions in children and adolescents: a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study of cortical thickness. Neuropsychologia. 2010 Jul;48(9):2496-508. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.04.024. Epub 2010 Apr 29.

  PMID: 20434470 BACKGROUND

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Model Details: Cluster RCT

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: November 22, 2021
• First Posted: December 3, 2021
• Study Start: September 30, 2021
• Primary Completion: April 1, 2022
• Study Completion: April 1, 2022
• Last Updated: December 3, 2021

Record last verified: 2021-11

Locations

ES (1)