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

Conectar Jugando Online: Effectiveness of an Online Modern Board Game-based Cognitive Training to Improve Executive Function in School-age Children by a Randomized Controlled Trial

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).

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Cognitive Change; Child Development
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Conectar Jugando Online Program

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 Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 35
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Spain
  • Lleida, Spain, 25001
    • Faculty of Education, Psychology and Social Work; University of Lleida

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 6 years to 12 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

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 Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: 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.	Behavioral: Conectar Jugando Online Program; Online play sessions with modern board and card games guided by the study researchers; Other Names: Modern board and card games
No Intervention: Wait-list group; Wait-list

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

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

Secondary Outcome Measures

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

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Time spent on less-structured activities	adapted from "Parent Survey of Typical Child Time Spent in Less-structured Activities" (Barker et al., 2014) In this survey, parents are asked (with the help of their children) about the time their children dedicate to less-structured and recreational activities using a using a 7-point scale (from lowest to highest frequency). High scores on each item mean a higher frequency in that activity. The sum of all the scores on each item (where 1= 'Never' and 7 = 'Daily') results in a typical less-structured activity score.	Baseline
Player satisfaction	Visual analogue scale created ad hoc The scale consists of two questions: Degree of satisfaction in reference to the play session; Degree of satisfaction in reference to the modern board and card games used in the play session Participants respond using a 5-option scale consisting of 5 stars (1 star = Not at all satisfied; 5 = Very satisfied)	During the intervention
Sociodemographic data (age, sex, school year and socioeconomic status)	Hollingshead Index (Hollingshead, 1975)	Baseline
Parent Play Beliefs	"The Parent Play Beliefs Scale (PPBS)" (Fogle & Mendez, 2006) It consists of 30 items with 5 response options ranging from 1 (Disagree) to 5 (Strongly agree). Two subscales have been considered: a) Play support; b) Acedemic focus. The Play Support subscale refers to parents' positive beliefs about the relevance of play for children's development and about their participation in play with children. High scores on this subscale indicate that parents enjoy play, prioritize play, and view it as a means of teaching. The Academic focus subscale is made up of elements about the parents' emphasis on academic skills and the belief that play can promote their development. The Academic focus subscale is made up of elements about the parents' emphasis on academic skills and the belief that play can promote their development. High scores on this subscale would indicate that parents see the academic role of play as important.	Baseline and post intervention (after 6 weeks)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Brain In Game scientific-technical service
• Collaborators: Atención, Familia, Infancia, Mayores (AFIM21); Mercurio Distribuciones

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Diamond A. Executive functions. Annu Rev Psychol. 2013;64:135-68. doi: 10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143750. Epub 2012 Sep 27.
• 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.
• Estrada-Plana V, Esquerda M, Mangues R, March-Llanes J, Moya-Higueras J. A Pilot Study of the Efficacy of a Cognitive Training Based on Board Games in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Games Health J. 2019 Aug;8(4):265-274. doi: 10.1089/g4h.2018.0051. Epub 2019 Jan 17.
• Fadhli, M., Brick, B., Setyosari, P., Ulfa, S., & Kuswandi, D. (2020). A Meta-Analysis of Selected Studies on the Effectiveness of Gamification Method for Children. International Journal of Instruction, 13(1), 845-854. https://doi.org/10.29333/iji.2020.13154a

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): December 16, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): May 27, 2021
• Study Completion (Actual): June 16, 2021

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 23, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 26, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): March 30, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): October 11, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 8, 2021
• Last Verified: October 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: cognitive training; executive function; school-age children; modern board and card games
• Other Study ID Numbers: NCT2021CJ

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No