A Game-Based Cognitive Intervention (Kiko’s Thinking Time) to Promote Cold Executive Function to Develop Early Learning Skills for School Readiness Preschool Children

Executive functions are a set of cognitive abilities that allow individuals to control their thoughts and actions in the face of new and complex situations that require automatic and impulsive responses. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of Kiko’s Thinking Time software game-based cognitive intervention to develop cold executive function skills in preschool children and to compare the two experimental and control groups in terms of basic learning skills for school preparation.

The design of the present study was a pretest-posttest experiment with a control group. Analysis of variance was used to compare the experimental and control groups after the intervention. The statistical population of this study was all preschool children in Ahvaz in the 98-99 academic year, of which 204 people were selected by multi-stage cluster random sampling and randomly divided into experimental and control  groups. Keiko game was performed for 35 days at intervals (10-15 minutes) in the experimental group. Cold executive questionnaires (Go/No go Task, Box Task, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST)) and Bracken School Readiness Assessment Test (BSRA) were used to collect data.

The results of analysis of covariance showed that Keiko game was effective in improving cold executive functional skills in the experimental group at the level (p <0.001). Also, the results of analysis of variance by comparing the two experimental and control groups in terms of school readiness structure showed that the experimental group obtained a higher score in the basic learning skills required for school readiness. (Experiment 25/17> 56/10 control)

According to the results of the present study, it can be concluded that Kiko’s Thinking Time software game by increasing the cold executive functional skills in preschool age, which is a critical stage in the development of these skills, in increasing the readiness of preschool children to enter school. Elementary school is effective for entering primary school.