Habilitation of Executive Functions in Pediatric Congenital Heart Disease Patients through LEGO®-Based Therapy: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Abstract

Congenital heart disease is defined as an abnormality in the cardiocirculatory structure or function. Various studies have shown that patients with this condition may present cognitive deficits. To compensate for this, several therapeutic strategies have been developed, among them, the LEGO® Education sets, which use the pedagogic enginery to modify cognitive function by didactic material based on mechanics and robotics principles. Accordingly, the goal of this study was to evaluate the effect of cognitive habilitation by using LEGO®-based therapy in pediatric congenital heart disease patients. This was a quasi-experimental study; eligible patients were identified, and their general data were obtained. In the treatment group, an initial evaluation with the neuropsychological BANFE-2 test was applied; then, once a week, the interventions were performed, with a final test at the end of the interventions. In the control group, after the initial evaluation, a second appointment was scheduled for the final evaluation. Our results show that >50% of children presented cognitive impairment; nevertheless, there was an overall improvement in treatment patients, showing a significant increase in BANFE scores in areas related to executive functions. LEGO®-based therapy may be useful to improve cognitive abilities; however, future research should be performed to strengthen the data.

The Promotion of Healthy Hydration Habits through Educational Robotics in University Students

“…In recent years, ER has increased its inclusion in classrooms and in the scientific literature as a consequence of the benefits it presents. Several studies have demonstrated its positive impact on the development of skills such as computational thinking, critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, motivation, and metacognitive skills [34][35][36][37][38]. According to the scientific literature, learning via robotics means that students learn knowledge from different areas, such as science and mathematics, and biosanitary content through the use of robots [38][39][40][41][42].…”

“…Several studies have demonstrated its positive impact on the development of skills such as computational thinking, critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, motivation, and metacognitive skills [34][35][36][37][38]. According to the scientific literature, learning via robotics means that students learn knowledge from different areas, such as science and mathematics, and biosanitary content through the use of robots [38][39][40][41][42]. Despite this, there is very little scientific literature analyzing the influence of ER on improving curricular content, especially bioscience content, and existing studies usually focus on improving the knowledge and skills related to the robot itself and its handling [40][41][42][43].…”