Cognitive stimulation in children at social risk: its transference to school performance

Abstract

Intervención cognitiva grupal destinada a fortalecer funciones ejecutivas en niños en riesgo socialCelina Korzeniowski 1 2 *, Mirta Susana Ison 1 2 and Hilda Difabio 3 AbstractThe present study set out to evaluate the effectiveness of a group cognitive intervention aimed at promoting executive functions in children at social risk. The quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest design included a control group. The sample was made up of 178 children (52% boys), aged 6-10. The children were evaluated by means of a battery of neuropsychological EF tests and a teacher-rated behavioral EF scale. The intervention program included 30 group cognitive stimulation sessions that increased in difficulty and were embedded into school currícula. Trained children performed better in terms of cognitive flexibility, planning, metacognition and inhibitory control, as compared to their baseline values and to children in the control group. This study provides new evidence of the effectiveness of cognitive interventions for children and of children's capability to transfer cognitive improvements to daily school activities. ResumenEl presente trabajo se propuso evaluar la efectividad de una intervención cognitiva grupal destinada a promover las funciones ejecutivas en niños en riesgo social. Se utilizó un diseño cuasi-experimental pretest-postest con grupo control. La muestra estuvo compuesta por 178 niños argentinos (52% varones) de 6 a 10 años de edad. Se empleó una batería de tests neuropsicológicos y una escala de funcionamiento ejecutivo versión docente. La intervención incluyó 30 sesiones grupales, de dificultad creciente y se insertó dentro de la curr'icula escolar. Los niños entrenados evidenciaron un mejor desempeño en flexibilidad cognitiva, planificación, metacognición y control inhibitorio en comparación con su desempeño basal y sus controles. Estos resultados aportan nueva evidencia sobre la efectividad de las intervenciones cognitivas infantiles y su capacidad para transferir las mejoras cognitivas a las actividades cotidianas de los niños en elámbito escolar.

Neuropsychological Stimulation Program for Children from Low Socioeconomic Backgrounds: Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial

“…The specific objective is the development of a comprehensive neuropsychological stimulation program in which the following cognitive and emotional functions are targeted: attention, language, executive functions, social cognition, and emotional competence. This comprehensive intervention responds to the needs identified in our previous studies, and we hypothesize that strengthening cognitive abilities and emotional competence will improve overall health and well-being, as previous studies have shown [ 25 , 26 , 27 ].…”

“…), with a wide range of activities, games, and other media, so patients can improve cognitive skills that are not fully acquired/developed (due to neurodevelopmental disorders) or have declined (due to acquired brain damage or degenerative illnesses). In addition, research exists demonstrating the efficacy of neuropsychological interventions focused on specific cognitive domains in non-clinical child populations belonging to socioeconomically vulnerable contexts [ 25 , 26 , 27 ]. The results suggest that protocols employing different agents and materials in cognitive intervention, with early intervention and a large number of sessions, are the most effective.…”

Alcances en neurociencias cognitivas: Fundamentación línea de investigación en neurociencias y neurodesarrollo

“…Lezama et al (2019) Desarrollo e implementación de una propuesta didáctica para la promoción de la función ejecutiva "planificación y organización" en cursos de física de enseñanza media. Un estudio de caso realizado en Uruguay Korzeniowski et al (2017) Intervención cognitiva grupal dirigida al fortalecimiento de las funciones ejecutivas en niños en riesgo social. Mayoral et al (2015) Mejora de la capacidad de planificación cognitiva del alumnado de primer curso de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria Cardoso et al (2019) Programa para la estimulación neuropsicológica de la cognición en estudiantes: efectos de impacto, efectividad y transferencia en el desempeño cognitivo del estudiante.…”

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Development of Childrens Executive Functions Implications for School-Based Interventions

“…According those frameworks, a set of evidencebased approaches and strategies for teachers to help children lowering stress and promote EFs during the COVID-19 pandemic, have been selected. Those strategies have been chosen from: peer-reviewed academic publications, books and web resources, published between 2010 and 2021: For lowering children sress: [8,26,89,[93][94][95][96][97][98][99] and for promoting children EFs [100][101][102][103][104][105][106][107][108]. As a result, a collection of techniques was created that can easily be embedded into the school curriculum, while also encouraging cooperation between teachers, and between teachers and families.…”