Effects of play on children’s cognition and school performance

• Autor(a) principal: Nascimento, Tárcio Amancio do
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: Silva, Harrison Vinícius Amaral da, Ribas, Juliane Camila de Oliveira, Florêncio Junior, Públio Gomes, Alexandre , Iana Guimarães, Merege-Filho, Carlos Alberto Abujabra, Costa, André dos Santos
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista Brasileira de Atividade Física & Saúde (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://rbafs.org.br/RBAFS/article/view/15099
• topic: Physical activity; Play; Infancy; Cognition; School performance; Atividade física; Jogos; Infância; Cognição; Desempenho escolar

This article investigates the effects of a 12-week program involving play on the cognition and school performance of children. This was a quasi-experiment study, involving groups of fourth-grade elementary school children, aged between 8 and 11 years. The “Intervention Group (n = 27)” participated in Play activities, while the “Control Group (n = 24)” did not. Both groups were submitted to assessments encompassing demographic data, visual attention (TAVIS-4), cognitive flexibility (Trails Test), as well as arithmetic, reading and language skills (School Performance Test), before and after the intervention. The structured intervention program based on play occurred three times a week, with each session lasting 50 minutes, over a span of 12 weeks. Some examples of games conducted during the intervention included “chess dodgeball”, “tag” and “owner of the street”. Concerning the statistical analysis, a two-way ANOVA was applied to examine differences between the groups before and after the intervention program. The play activities resulted in a decrease in omission errors in the selective attention test. There was also a reduction in the time spent on Task “B” of the Trails Test, in addition to an increase in the total score of the School Performance Test. In conclusion, it can be stated that an intervention program involving play generated positive effects on the cognition and school performance of these children.