Conectar Jugando Online: Board Games to Improve Executive Function in School-age Children (CJ-Online)

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Cognitive Change; Child Development
• Interventions: Behavioral: Conectar Jugando Online Program

• Registration Number: NCT04823338
• Lead Sponsor: Brain In Game scientific-technical service

Brief Summary

Good development of executive functions at school has been related to a better adaptation of children in different areas of their daily life and, especially, with adequate academic performance. Taking into account the importance of play in childhood, some interventions aimed at training these cognitive processes have been based on the use of playful elements, such as modern board games. Although it is still an unexplored field of research, some studies with older elementary school children and with ADHD children have found significant improvements in executive functions after training that had the board game as a key intervention element. However, we still do not have studies that have explored the possible cognitive benefits of its use throughout the primary stage with the general population. For this reason, the main objective of this study is to test the effectiveness of a cognitive training program based on modern board games in primary education children (6 to 12 years old).

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 and associated cognitive processes 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 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.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2020-12-16
• Study First Submitted: 2021-03-23
• Study First Submitted QC: 2021-03-26
• Study First Posted: 2021-03-30
• Primary Completion: 2021-05-27
• Study Completion: 2021-06-16
• Status Verified: 2021-10
• Last Update Submitted: 2021-10-08
• Last Update Posted: 2021-10-11

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 35

Inclusion Criteria

• be enrolled in a public, private or subsidized ordinary educational center
• 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
• not having the necessary equipment to monitor the sessions online

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Conectar Jugando Online Program	Conectar Jugando Online Program	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), Sherlock Express (Kermarrec, 2019), Streams (Itsubaki, 2011) and Blurble (Bernard, 2013). The play sessions were carried out in groups of between 2 and 4 boys and girls of similar ages (same school stage) formed according to the availability of the participants. In the sessions, the physical games were projected on the videoconference tool by the researcher and the participating boys and girls carried out their actions using their voice and the platform tools. The program was gamified though a narrative about a space travel to different planets in discovering new games and get different mission badges and super team badges in their logbook.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Change in verbal updating from baseline to post intervention	Baseline and post intervention (after 6 weeks)	Verbal keep track task (Tamnes et al., 2010)
Change in visuospatial updating from baseline to post intervention	Baseline and post intervention (after 6 weeks)	Visuospatial keep track task (Tamnes et al., 2010)
Change in inhibition from baseline to post intervention	Baseline and post intervention (after 6 weeks)	5 digits test (Sedó, 2004)
Change in cognitive flexibility from baseline to post intervention	Baseline and post intervention (after 6 weeks)	5 digits test (Sedó, 2004)
Change in reasoning from baseline to post intervention	Baseline and post intervention (after 6 weeks)	TONI-4 (Ruíz-Fernández, 2019)
Change in verbal fluency from baseline to post intervention	Baseline and post intervention (after 6 weeks)	Phonological and semantic fluency (letter M and animals, ENFEN, Portellano \& Martínez-Arias, R. Zumárraga, 2009)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Change in behavioral executive functions from baseline to post intervention	Baseline and post intervention (after 6 weeks)	ATENTO (Luque \& Sánchez-Sánchez, 2019)
Change in emotional and behavioral problems from baseline to post intervention	Baseline and post intervention (after 6 weeks)	SENA (Sistema de Evaluación de Niños y Adolescentes, Fernández-Pinto, L Santamaría, Sánchez-Sánchez, F Carrasco, \& Del Barrio, 2015)

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Faculty of Education, Psychology and Social Work; University of Lleida; 🇪🇸 Lleida, Spain