TrainyourMind: enhancing executive functions among elementary school children to promote physical and mental well-being

Abstract

Background: Executive Functions (EF’s) are higher order mental control functions that enable an individual to take reasoned action rather than relying on automatic pilot or impulses, especially when the latter is ill-advised in light of long-term physical and psychological well-being. Given the vital importance of these EF’s and the fact that they are trainable, we endeavored to design a school-based intervention aiming to enhance EF’s among nine to eleven year olds. Methods/Design: The effects of our intervention Train your Mind (TyM) shall be rigorously investigated through an RCT with 800 children and an EF computer task battery, as well as questionnaires. Based on most recent literature, we opted for a holistic approach comprising five major components. The intervention in the RCT consists of 25 weeks and is mainly delivered by teachers, and partly online. The five components are: (1) focused exercise, (2) collective cognitive training, (3) socio-emotional development, (4) eHealth, and (5) individual cognitive training. Teachers’ feedback helps shaping and ameliorating sub-components of TyM. This process is dynamic in nature, which makes the intervention itself constantly evolving. The goal is to deliver an effective, independent, cost-efficient, maintainable intervention-package. We will present the five components as they are currently implemented in the schools. Discussion: TyM is a first of its kind intervention that ambitiously combines several main approaches and sub-disciplines within psychology, in order to enhance EF’s among elementary school children. Attempting to achieve broad transfer, strengthened EF’s will lead to increased physical and mental well-being and better school performance.