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

Brain In Game scientific-technical service

Status: Unknown

Conditions: Child Development; Cognitive Change

Treatments: Behavioral: Conectar Jugando Classroom Program

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05143294

NCT2021CJA

Details and patient eligibility

About

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.

Full description

As hypotheses, it is established that: i) the experimental group will present a significantly greater improvement in the neuropsychological tasks that measure executive functions compared to the passive control group after the intervention; ii) the experimental group will present a significantly greater improvement in the tests evaluated by their parents / teachers after the intervention compared to the passive control group; iii) the experimental group will present a significantly greater improvement in academic tests after the intervention compared to the passive control group. All hypotheses will be controlled for age, estimate of IQ and socioeconomic status, as well as previous experience in board games and other cognitive activities.

Enrollment: 1,200 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 5 to 13 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• 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

Exclusion criteria

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

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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1,200 participants in 2 patient groups

Modern board and card games group

Experimental group

Description:

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.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Conectar Jugando Classroom Program

Wait-list group

No Intervention group

Description:

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.