Digital Games and Improvement of the Inhibitory Control: a Study With Children in Specialized Educational Service

ABSTRACT: Interaction with digital games can have an impact on executive functions and offer contributions to education. Among the dimensions of the executive functions, we highlight inhibitory control and its importance for self-control, selective attention, impulse control and behavioral adjustment. Therefore, interventions were proposed in the Specialized Educational Service (SES), with the support of the family for the use of digital games in the school context for the purpose of exercising executive functions. The objective was to evaluate the contributions of the use of digital games as a complementary strategy in SES, aimed at children who were identified by the teachers as having difficulties in the performance of the inhibitory control. For that, it was performed a quasi-experimental study of mixed approach with 8 children divided into a participant and control group, who were evaluated before and after interventions based on performance in proposed playful activities and psychological test application. The results indicated superior improvement in general, in the participant group when compared to the control group that did not participate in the interventions with the digital games. In the playful activities, they showed greater assertiveness, control of actions and performance. In the tests, it was observed better performance when comparing the pre and post interventions and the groups in four of the five tests applied. It is concluded that digital games can be used as an alternative intervention in SES to enhance executive functions and improve the conditions for learning in the school context.