Promoting Inclusive Education Through Executive Functions
ConditionCognitive Training
Trial statusNot yet recruiting
Trial phaseNot applicable
Trial typeInterventional
Biological sexAll
Age5-7
SponsorUniversity of Minho
About this trial
Background: Recently governments worldwide have been doing enormous efforts to ensuring egalitarian educational opportunities for all children. However, the number of children that remain out of the school or lack proficiency in academic performance is still very worrying. One of the factors that seems to contribute to such inequalities is socioeconomic status (SES). SES strongly impacts the developmental trajectory of both the brain and cognitive abilities as off early childhood, further affecting learning and academic success.
Despite the great interest in building inclusive societies and the promising results of executive functions' training programs for leveling the SES-achievement disparities, only a few studies have actually included schools from low-SES settings and lack a comprehensive, evidence-based background underlying the intervention protocols. Thus, with a preventive emphasis, the current project aims to implementing and evaluating a cost-effective game-based training protocol to promote and boost the development of executive functions in preschool and elementary school-aged children from disadvantaged contexts, ultimately contributing to prevent school dropout and reduce academic inequalities.
Eligibility criteria
This trial accepts healthy volunteersQualifiers
Typically developed children of 5, 6, and 7 years old attending the regular curriculum at public educational services -kindergarten and elementary school.
Disqualifiers
Presence or history of cognitive deficits, neurological or psychiatric condition.
Trial design
Design model
Parallel
Treatments tested in this trial
InSchool Training Program
BehavioralThe goal of the intervention is to promote and boost the development of executive functions in preschool and elementary school-aged children by means of engagement in meaningful and challenging activities. The method to achieve this consists on weekly intervention sessions run by teachers with a set of games specially developed to train executive functions.
Regular school activities
BehavioralChildren in the control group will be playing with the regular school activities.
Treatment groups
470 Participants
are divided into 2 treatment groupsGroup A: Experimental ConditionExperimental treatment 1 intervention
Group B: Control ConditionActive comparator 1 intervention
Trial outcomes
Primary outcomes
1
Executive functions (Working memory)
Accuracy, measured through the number of hits, will be collected from the participant's performance on a working memory task, conducted using a digital platform specifically built to assess the hypothetical differences in participant's level of achievement between the pretest and posttest assessments.
Time frame
Through study completion, an average of 1 year.2
Executive functions (Working memory)
Reaction times, measured as seconds needed to give a response, will be collected from the participant's performance on a working memory task, conducted using a digital platform specifically built to assess the hypothetical differences in participant's level of achievement between the pretest and posttest assessments.
Time frame
Through study completion, an average of 1 year.3
Executive functions (Inhibitory control)
Accuracy, measured through the number of hits, will be collected from the participant's performance on an inhibitory control task, conducted using a digital platform specifically built to assess the hypothetical differences in participant's level of achievement between the pretest and posttest assessments.
Time frame
Through study completion, an average of 1 year.4
Executive functions (Inhibitory control)
Reaction times, measured as seconds needed to give a response, will be collected from the participant's performance on an inhibitory control task, conducted using a digital platform specifically built to assess the hypothetical differences in participant's level of achievement between the pretest and posttest assessments.
Time frame
Through study completion, an average of 1 year.Secondary outcomes
1
School Grades
Grades in math and Portuguese of each participant's current school year are the secondary outcomes and will be requested to their teachers. This measure will be applicable only to the 6 and 7 years old children.
Time frame
Through study completion, an average of 1 year.Locations
Sponsors and contacts
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Source ClinicalTrials.gov
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