https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6317-4783
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ABSTRACT
The study evaluated the effects of board games on children in a range of cognitive areas, considering both inclusion (i.e. pre- and post-comparisons, playing style [board games], participants belonging to PreKinder and Kindergarten, and experimental approach) and exclusion criteria (i.e. video games). Nineteen articles were selected using both PsycInfo and PubMed as databases. All of them, except one study, focused on exploring the relationship between board games and mathematical knowledge and numerical skills. These studies show that in 52% of the analysed tasks, significant gains were found considering pre- and post-comparisons in math skills. When comparing intervention and control groups, significant differences appeared for 32% of the cases. Board games enhance mathematical abilities for children from 45.6 to 100.6 months since they help achieve statistically significant gains. Future studies should be designed to explore the effects that these games could have on other cognitive and developmental skills.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. The articles have been ordered according to the effect size (from smaller to larger) for the within-group effect size.
2. Basic Number Comprehension includes Magnitude Comparison, Composite Task and Seriation Task measured through Würzburger Vorschultest.
3. Deepened Number Comprehension includes Addition and Subtraction measured via Würzburger Vorschultest.
4. Sonnenschein et al. (Citation2016) appear twice in the table because the study includes two investigations in its report.
5. Anzman-Frasca et al. (Citation2020) appear twice in the table because the study includes two investigations in its report
6. Standard measures of effect size will be used. Hedge´s g: 0.2 (small); 0.5 (moderate), and 0.8 (large), according to Cohen (Citation1988).
7. Verbal counting ability was measured in different ways.
8. The number identification ability was measured in different ways: from 0 to 10 (Sonneschein et al., Citation2016; Lange et al., Citation2021; Scalise et al., Citation2020); from 0 to 20 (Hawes et al., Citation2020) and from 0 to 25 (Cheung & McBride, Citation2017).