Improving cognitive processes in preschool children: the COGEST programme

Abstract

The present study provides empirical evidence to support the hypothesis that preschool children's cognitive functions can be developed by virtue of a training tool named COGENT (Cognitive Enhancement Training). We assumed that COGENT (COGEST in Spain) which is embedded in speech and language, will enhance the core cognitive processes that are required for reading acquisition. The participants included 97 students aged four and five, who received COGEST for six months. The two core cognitive processes targeted were simultaneous and successive. These were measured before and after the application of COGEST. Simultaneously, we assessed a control group in the same manner, but it did not receive any COGEST training. Results showed that the COGEST group improved its simultaneous and successive processing performance significantly (p < 0.00) with Cohen effect size moderate for simultaneous and small for successive, whereas the control group displayed no such change. The study provides evidence for the effectiveness of COGEST in preschoolers to improve the simultaneous and successive cognitive processes (PASS) involved in reading acquisition and suggests its use as a training programme may help prevent reading difficulties. IntroductionHow do children learn and, in particular, learn to read? Our conceptual framework is behavioral-neurology-based. Behavior must be neuro-biologically considered for any external manifestations of human behavior whatsoever. In this sense, walking, eating, coughing, reading, writing, speaking must be all considered behaviors (Delgado et al. 1998;Pinel 2005). The PASS (acronym for planning, attention, simultaneous, and successive) theory of intelligence (Das 2009;Das, Kirby, and Jarman 1975;Das, Naglieri, and Kirby 1994;Naglieri, Rojahn, and Matto 2007) is behavioral-neurology-based (Pinel 2005). According to this concept, the central processing of information happens between the input of information entering via sensorial input, whether visual, auditory or kinesthetic, and the output, either verbal or non-verbal. Input, central processing and output can occur both consciously and unconsciously.

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