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Promoting Inclusive Education Through Executive Functions

NCT ID: NCT05472194

Last Updated: 2024-12-06

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

NOT_YET_RECRUITING

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

470 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2025-09-30

Study Completion Date

2027-12-09

Brief Summary

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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.

Detailed Description

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A randomized controlled trial will be implemented in Portuguese schools embedded in low-income settings. It will include a total of 396 participants, 132 per age group: 5,6 and 7 years old. At each age group a total of 132 children will be enrolled in the program for 4 weeks, 66 in the active control group, and 66 in the intervention group. The assessment protocol will include demographics, including SES, and evaluation of executive functions. Both groups -control and intervention- will complete the same assessment protocol at three distinct moments -baseline, post-intervention, and 6 months' follow-up. The training program will comprise the following: (i) 3 weekly sessions of 30 minutes each (ii) each session will be dedicated to train a specific domain of executive functions -working memory, inhibition and cognitive flexibility.

Conditions

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Cognitive Training

Keywords

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Inclusive Education Executive Functions Cognitive Tools

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

The protocol includes a randomized controlled trial with a follow-up at six months involving two groups per age range (5,6 and 7Y) -a training group, which will be enrolled in the InSchool program and an active control group that will be participating in the regular kindergarten/elementary school activities. Participants will be randomly assigned to each group to control for inter-individual variability in executive functions' developmental level, which could distinctly impact the study results.
Primary Study Purpose

PREVENTION

Blinding Strategy

SINGLE

Participants
Participants will be randomly assigned for the experimental or control group with no information on the nature of the group they will be assigned. Additionally, no information about the training activities will be passed on to the participants.

Study Groups

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Experimental Condition

Participants allocated to the Experimental condition will be following a cognitive training program using a set of game-based activities specifically developed to train executive functions.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

InSchool Training Program

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

The 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.

Control Condition

Participants allocated to the Control condition will be following the same sessions of the training program (similar to the Experimental group) while playing with a set of commonly used games within the school context (e.g. puzzles).

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Regular school activities

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Children in the control group will be playing with the regular school activities.

Interventions

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InSchool Training Program

The 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.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Regular school activities

Children in the control group will be playing with the regular school activities.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* Typically developed children of 5, 6, and 7 years old attending the regular curriculum at public educational services -kindergarten and elementary school.

Exclusion Criteria

* Presence or history of cognitive deficits, neurological or psychiatric condition.
Minimum Eligible Age

5 Years

Maximum Eligible Age

7 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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University of Minho

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Sonia Sousa

Principal Investigator

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

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Sónia Sousa, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

School of Psychology, University of Minho

Central Contacts

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Sónia Sousa, PhD

Role: CONTACT

Phone: +351917824280

Email: [email protected]

Other Identifiers

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EduFun2022

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id