Clinical trial NCT05143294: Conectar Jugando: Board Games in Elementary Classrooms (6-12 Years Old) to Improve Executive Functions
Official title: Conectar Jugando: Effectiveness of a Modern Board Gamebased Cognitive Training to Improve Executive Function in Elementary Classrooms (6-12 Years Old) by a Cluster Controlled Trial
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Phase: NA
Conditions: Cognitive Change
Child Development
Keywords: executive function
modern board games
cognitive training
school-age children
Lead sponsor: Brain In Game scientific-technical service
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Atención, Familia, Infancia, Mayores (AFIM21)
name: Mercurio Distribuciones
First posted: 2021-12-03
Enrollment: 1200
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 5
Maximum age (years): 13
Standard ages: CHILD
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: Cluster RCT
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

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.

Detailed 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.

Eligibility criteria: 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

Primary outcomes:
measure: Visuospatial keep track task (Tamnes et al., 2010)
timeFrame: Baseline and post intervention (after 6 weeks)
measure: Inhibition - Child Fish Flanker Task (Benzing et al., 2018)
timeFrame: Baseline and Post-intervention (after 6 weeks)
measure: Shifting - Child Fish Flanker Task (Benzing et al., 2018)
timeFrame: Baseline and Post-intervention (after 6 weeks)
measure: PREDISCAL (Pina-Paredes et al., 2020)
timeFrame: Baseline and Post-intervention (after 6 weeks)
Secondary outcomes:
measure: ATENTO - Family (Luque & Sánchez-Sánchez, 2019)
timeFrame: Baseline and Post-intervention (after 6 weeks)
Other outcomes:
measure: Reasoning - TONI-4 (Ruíz-Fernández, 2019)
timeFrame: Baseline
measure: Hollingshead Index (Hollingshead, 1975)
timeFrame: Baseline
measure: The Parent Play Beliefs Scale (PPBS) (Fogle & Mendez, 2006)
timeFrame: Baseline and Post-intervention (after 6 weeks)
measure: Parent Survey of Typical Child Time Spent in Less-structured Activities (adapted from Barker et al., 2014)
timeFrame: Baseline
Locations:
city: Lleida
country: Spain
facility: Faculty of Education, Psychology and Social Work; University of Lleida
Study officials:
References:
citation: 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.
citation: 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.
citation: 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.