Testing Whether a Short Training Program Designed to Improve Cognitive Skills Improves 4-year-olds' Maths Skills

University of Sheffield

Status: Completed

Conditions: Cognitive Development

Treatments: Other: Executive Function Intervention; Other: Active Control Group

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03063411

146958

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study will test whether a short training program - designed to improve memory and attention skills - will benefit mathematical reasoning in preschoolers from a range of socio-economic backgrounds. The investigators will test how long any benefits last for and whether any intervention effects are greater for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. The aim is to test interventions that aim to close the achievement gap by improving skills known to underpin academic skills, at an age children may benefit most from training.

Full description

Children's academic success across a range of domains is related to their executive function skills - specifically by their ability to maintain and update information (working memory) and to suppress inappropriate responses (inhibitory control). These skills undergo significant development during the preschool years. Notably, preschool executive function skills strongly predict school readiness, as well as concurrent and later academic achievements in mathematics. The aim of this project is to test an intervention that is specifically designed to improve preschoolers' executive functions - crucially, before the achievement gap sets in. The study will be carried out, following CONSORT (2010) guidelines, with typically developing preschoolers (aged approximately 4 years of age). The study will include children from socioeconomically advantaged and disadvantaged families. Children will be randomly assigned to either an executive function training group or an active control group. A nominated person external to the project will conduct the random allocation process. The random allocation will be done for each nursery to ensure roughly even numbers in each group from each nursery. Children in both groups will complete computerized tasks lasting 15-20 minutes once a week for four weeks. The investigators will compare the trained children to an active control group that closely matches the training in terms of activity. To check for improvements, the investigators will measure cognitive and maths skills at baseline (one week before training); one week post-training; three months post-training; and one year post-training. These assessments will be conducted by testers blind to the child's group.

Enrollment: 175 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 3 to 5 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Must be attending a nursery school attached to a primary school.
• Must speak and understand English (class teachers will advise on this).
• Must have at least one measure of working memory completed at baseline and one measure of inhibitory control completed at baseline.

Exclusion criteria

• Must not have a significant diagnosed or known physical, mental or learning disability.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Quadruple Blind

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175 participants in 2 patient groups

Executive function intervention

Experimental group

Description:

The intervention comprises four weekly sessions lasting 15-20 minutes. In these sessions, children complete computerised tasks requiring working memory and inhibitory control. These tasks are child friendly and are based on established measures of executive function. The working memory tasks involve maintaining information in mind and processing information (for example, finding items hiding in different locations that move around) and suppressing a dominant but incorrect response (for example, a game where children try to catch fish but not sharks). Children receive feedback on their responses. If children score 75% or more correct in a session the difficulty level increases in the following session.

Treatment:

Other: Executive Function Intervention

Visual search and simple decision making

Active Comparator group

Description:

The control task program, like the intervention, comprises four weekly sessions lasting 15-20 minutes. In these sessions, children complete computerised tasks not requiring executive function skills. Instead, they require simple attention and decision making skills and visual search skills. For example, finding an item among distractors (e.g., a spaceship), or deciding which of two animals can fly (out of a bird and a fish). Children receive feedback on their responses.

Treatment:

Other: Active Control Group