University of Minho
SONIA SOUSA
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.
Cognitive Training
InSchool Training Program
Regular school activities
NA
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.
| Study Type : | INTERVENTIONAL |
| Estimated Enrollment : | 470 participants |
| Masking : | SINGLE |
| Masking Description : | 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. |
| Primary Purpose : | PREVENTION |
| Official Title : | Promoting Inclusive Education Through Executive Functions - Study Protocol of a Randomized Control Trial |
| Actual Study Start Date : | 2025-09 |
| Estimated Primary Completion Date : | 2027-12-09 |
| Estimated Study Completion Date : | 2027-12-09 |
Information not available for Arms and Intervention/treatment
| Ages Eligible for Study: | 5 Years to 7 Years |
| Sexes Eligible for Study: | ALL |
| Accepts Healthy Volunteers: | 1 |
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