1 Introduction

In this study, we discuss the cognitive impact of digital games and the contributions they can offer to education, more specifically in the context of Specialized Educational Service (SES), when the use is based on objectives, intentionality and pedagogical mediation. Interaction with digital games involves the exercise of important cognitive abilities, which influence learning (^{Moita, 2007}; ^{Lalueza, Crespo, & Camps, 2010}; ^{Rivero, Querino, & Starling-Alves, 2012}; ^{Ramos, 2013}). Among the cognitive abilities developed by the use of digital games, some research indicate advances in the inhibitory control of children (^{Dovis, Van Der Oord, Wiers, & Prins, 2015}; ^{Martinovic, Burgess, Pomerleau, & Marin, 2015}; Ramos, 2013).

Inhibitory control refers to an important dimension of executive functions, which involves the ability to control attention, thoughts, behavior and emotions to overcome internal predispositions or external attraction, in order to act contrary to the impulses to respond to what is necessary or more appropriate (^{Diamond, 2013}). Considering the breadth and relevance of this function, we emphasize that the capacities contemplated by the inhibitory control are essential for children’s cognitive development.

Executive functions are “the set of mental operations that organize and direct the various categories of cognitive domains to function in a biologically adaptive way” (^{Lent, 2013}, p. 289). These functions influence the performance of daily activities, even if we have external interferences that hinder execution, and help us to stay focused and concentrated until these activities are completed (^{Diamond, 2012}).

The dimension of the inhibitory control is responsible for the domain of internal and external interferences that act as distractors, which can compromise student performance in school tasks (^{Klawe-Schiavon, Viola, & Grassi-Oliveira, 2012}). In addition to the aspect of self-control, inhibitory control is more comprehensive, when contemplating the control of emotions, discipline and selective attention (^{Diamond, 2013}). According to the author, as a consequence of all these characteristics, it is the inhibitory control that allows us to evaluate situations and choose the best way to act, which is not easy, considering that we have more environmental stimuli than we realize.

Several conditions may lead to difficulties in the performance of executive functions, including inhibitory control. Among them, we highlight, in the context of this study, children with special needs and attend SES in schools, as a proposition and alternative to inclusive education due to the recognition of different conditions for learning and attending them, which includes learning or development difficulties (^{Carvalho, 2013}).

Inclusive education contemplates a series of differences, related to social and economic aspects as well. However, our focus was on target public students of Special Education in the context of regular education. To ^{González (2007, p. 19)}, Special Education is understood as “the set of personal and material resources placed at the disposal of the educational system so that it can adequately respond to the needs that, in a transient or permanent way, some students may present”.

Among the strategies, resources and methodologies used in SES, we highlight the use of digital games, which are already described as resources used with students in the activities developed in the SES, as indicated in research on the area (^{Emer, 2011}; ^{Salomão, 2013}; ^{Alves, Santos, Hostins, & Santos, 2014}). In addition, we point out the use of digital games as a playful alternative for the exercise of cognitive abilities.

Digital games are presented as a didactic resource that can bring a number of benefits to teaching and learning practices, such as motivating effect, cognitive skills development and learning by discovery (^{Savi & Ulbricht, 2008}; ^{Ramos, 2013}). In relation to the developed skills, to ^{Santaella and Feitoza (2009)}, digital games lead the players to learn without noticing, to develop teamwork, to anticipate experiences and the readiness in decision making, as well as to exercise the resolution of problems.

Several features can be associated with digital games such as rules, goals or objectives; results and feedback (^{Gee, 2009}; ^{Mcgonigal, 2012}; ^{Prensky, 2012}); immersion and interactivity (^{Ranhel, 2009}; ^{Santaella & Feitoza, 2009}; ^{Prensky, 2012}), active agency and player participation (^{Gee, 2009}; ^{Santaella & Feitoza, 2009}). The combination of these characteristics creates experiences that influence cognition as a result of the decoding of a series of complex symbolic relations, as well as the development of spatial perception by these digital technologies and the new form of interaction between users and digital media (^{Luz, 2010}).

Considering the contributions of the games and the specific audience, we call attention to a study conducted by ^{Mason et al. (2014)}, which proposes the use of games during recess as an important space for the development of the interaction and communication of autistic students with their peers. The research was carried out with a sample of three boys from 6 to 8 years old, all with diagnosis of autism. These children were chosen among participants enrolled in a randomized clinical trial. Interventions with proposed games occurred for 13 sessions, distributed two or three times a week, each lasting about 10 minutes. Regarding the changes that arose after the intervention of the research, the children presented significant improvements in language development and interaction with their peers (^{Mason et al., 2014}).

Another study conducted by ^{Sande, Segers and Verhoeven (2014)} examined the use of serious games designed with a focus on goals such as vocabulary, social-emotional learning skills and problem solving. Based on this conception, researchers carried out a study with a sample of 106 children, about six years old, who attended Early Childhood Education, which were randomly selected by class. Interactions with the games were conducted individually in two 15-minute sessions and presented educational benefits (^{Sande et al., 2014}).

In the study developed by ^{Thorell, Lindqvist, Bergman, Bohlin and Klingberg (2009)}, preschool children participated in a computerized memory training for visuospatial work and inhibition for 5 weeks. The children were organized into different groups and the results revealed that children trained in working memory improved significantly on the tasks being trained, including improvements in attention. Children involved in inhibition showed a significant improvement in two of three trained tasks (^{Thorell et al., 2009}).

Considering the importance of executive functions in human development and its implications for learning, the characteristics of the games and the evidence that they can contribute to the improvement of executive functions, we propose, in this study, interventions in SES, with the support of the family for the use of digital games in the school context with the purpose of exercising executive functions in a more playful way. Based on this intervention, the objective of this study 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.

2 Methodology

The context of the research refers to SES, an important space, where different strategies and methodologies are sought and used to favor the participation of the target public student of Special Education in regular education. Considering this, our study proposes the use of digital games for students, who attend this service in a school. However, the intervention with games was carried out in the homes, with an invitation to the parents to mediate in order to contribute to the improvement of the inhibitory control. To do so, we proposed the use of digital games integrated to the Brain School, because they present results related mainly to the development of attention and inhibitory control (^{Ramos & Rocha, 2016}).

3 Results

The results are based on observations and records made by the researcher in proposing play activities and applying psychological tests, before and after the interventions, also comparing the performance between the participant group and the control group. Although the research has focused on the intervention with digital games, evaluative activities that could offer indications about the performance of the inhibitory control in other contexts, such as a game with music, body movements, interaction with other digital games and realization of paper tasks in psychological tests were envisaged.

In Table 3, the evaluation of each child in the three proposed activities can be observed in relation to what was identified in terms of progress and performance in the task performed, comparing to the accomplishment before the beginning of the interventions and after their completion.

In activity 1, in the participating group, three children had the same initial performance, only one child progressed. In activity 2, both the children in the control group and the children in the participating group had one child from each group with the same initial performance and three children with advances. In activity 3, in the participant group, one child presented the same performance; three children improved their results; where as the control group had exactly the same result. When we observed the results by groups in general, there were 7 advances in the participant group and 3 in the control group, indicating a better performance in the participating group.

Source: Elaborated by the authors.

Graph 1 Comparison of the results presented between the control and participant groups.  

Evaluations conducted through the application of psychological tests were used as indicators to compare performance gains in some skills related to executive functions before and after interventions without any intention of evaluating or classifying children. The results obtained offered other indicators to analyze the differences obtained, aiding in the comparison of the development presented during the period of data collection for the research.

From the table, we can observe that all students in the participating group showed improvement in the general intelligence test. In the Matrix test, two students in the control group showed improvement in results; whereas two others reduced the score, which, in the end, maintained the same score of the initial test.

The results of the WISC subtests also revealed, on average, superior improvements in the participant group compared to the control group. In the IMO Digits test, it can be observed that, of the four children in the participating group, three presented advances. In the control group, of the four children, one presented improvement, one presented the same performance and the other two had a lower performance.

In the subtest Sequence of numbers and letters, an improvement was observed in all the participating children. In the mean of the final result, this group showed an improvement of two points in relation to the control group. Whereas the students in the control group presented the same mean, since two presented better performance and two worsened in relation to the initial score.

In the PSI Code test, the participant group had improvement in two participants and had one underperformed when comparing to the initial one. In the control group, one of the students reduced the score; however, three others improved the score. Nevertheless, on average, the comparative performance between the two groups showed better performance in the participating group.

In the PSI Symbols 2 test, the participant group presented an important decrease in the final mean of the group - 2.5. One of the participants had exactly the same score, one of them presented improvement and two of them presented lower scores than in the initial evaluation. The control group showed an improvement in the final group mean in 3 points, and only one of the students presented a worse result in the second evaluation and three students improved their results.

Considering all the subtests used, in the next graph we present the mean of the psychological tests in both groups, to observe the changes presented in the two periods.

Source: Elaborated by the authors.

Graph 2 Comparison between the means of the psychological tests between the two groups.  

When we consider the average difference between the groups, we can observe that, in four of them, we have a better performance of the participant group. Only one test had a better outcome for the control group.

4 Discussion

The results observed in the playful activities proposed with the children, in general, revealed superior improvements in the participant group, which highlighted a more qualitative performance in relation to self-control. To ^{Diamond (2013)}, self-control is one of the aspects of inhibitory control responsible for the adequacy of behavior and emotions, involving aspects such as resisting temptations and not acting impulsively.

We emphasize that the proposition of activity 2 was inspired by the reports described by ^{Luria (1992)}. In his research, the author describes an experiment performed with children, in which he proposed a provocation to them. He explained that when he lifted his fist, the child should raise his/her finger; when Luria lifted his finger, the child should raise his/her fist. The activity aimed to generate a conflict, between what children saw and what they should do, since the initial tendency was to imitate the researcher (^{Luria, 1992}). Thus, in order to perform correctly, it was necessary to make use of attention and self-control, as the child had to observe the movement with focused attention, to contain his/her impulses to imitate and to respond with the contrary movement.

The result obtained in the proposed playful activities indicates that the children who had access to the cognitive games presented a better performance in this stage of the activities in the SES. These activities involved the exercise of cognitive skills essential to learning, such as attention, self-control, and self-regulation. This better performance reinforces the use of games in an intentional way in the school context to favor the improvement of cognitive abilities in a playful way, which can influence the learning processes (^{Ramos, 2013}). An advance, especially in activity 3 with digital games, was observed; however, the children who participated in the interventions with the use of the Brain School games also presented better performance in music activity (activity 1).

To ^{Moita (2007)}, when playing, the child needs to appropriate the rules, demonstrate persistence, exercise the reasoning to overcome challenges and, thus, achieve the ultimate goal of winning the game. In addition, to the author, interaction with games favors the development of cognitive abilities, which impacts on how players behave, interact and work out problem solving.

The improvements observed also reinforce the contributions of the games described by ^{Mason et al. (2014)} who, when proposing the use of games with autistic students, reported significant improvements in language and peer interaction.

It is also added, in relation to the changes presented in the course of the data collection, an improvement in the execution time in the last stage of tests. In the first round, it took around three weeks; most children needed two sessions to perform the tests, one child needed three sessions. At the end of the data collection, the tests for each child could be performed in only one session. This aspect can be taken as an indicative in the improvement of the speed of cognitive processing, which can be related to the mental capacity, the performance in tasks and the learning (^{Wechsler, 2015}). Moreover, the results observed in the playful activities proposed with the children could be triangulated with the performance compared in the psychological tests applied to evaluate some abilities related to the executive functions.

The result obtained in the Raven’s Matrix test, which evaluates general intelligence, reinforces that what often influences learning in the school context are other factors, such as those related to motivation or social interaction, since the children participating in the study did not perform below expectations.

In the Matrix test, the participant group presented a better performance related to the reasoning, considering that the control group presented exactly the same average of the beginning of the data collection. These data point to the enhancement of the reasoning due to the contact with digital games, as indicated by studies in the area (^{Diamond & Lee, 2011}; ^{Dovis et al., 2015}; ^{Moita, 2007}; ^{Ramos, 2013}).

Considering that the objective was to evaluate non-verbal reasoning ability, we highlight the study conducted by ^{Dovis et al. (2015)}, which includes, among other tests, the Matrix Test, to evaluate executive functions with children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), indicating improvements in inhibition and short-term visual memory in children who have counted on the “partially active” and “full active” experience after 25 interventions that lasted 3 months with 89 children aged 8 to 12 years (^{Dovis et al., 2015}).

Taking into account that the two subtests that make up the WISC operational memory index, which is one of the main dimensions of executive functions (Center on the developing child at Harvard University, 2011), we can infer that interventions with the use of digital games on average influenced in the skills evaluated in the tests, such as attention, concentration, sequencing and short-term memory, corroborating with results obtained in other studies that sought to establish relationships between interaction with digital games and the improvement of executive functions (^{Diamond & Lee, 2011}; ^{Ramos, 2013}; ^{Ramos & Rocha, 2016}) and memory (^{Diamond & Lee, 2011}; ^{Dovis et al., 2015}; ^{Ramos, 2013}).

The advances presented in the aspects evaluated in this group point out to a study that examines how executive control contributes to behavior in children when playing the Brain School, which can be considered a serious game because it has a defined goal aimed at the improvement of specific cognitive skills. These results corroborate with those obtained by ^{Sande et al. (2014)} when they used the game for benefits on socioemotional aspects and problem solving.

Even without the data presented by one of the students, the participating group showed a 5-point advance in the PSI Code test. This data refers to the influence of interaction with digital games on memory (^{Dovis et al., 2015}; ^{Ramos 2013}), learning (^{Prensky, 2012}; ^{Santaella, 2013}) and motivation (^{Gee, 2009}; ^{Santaella, 2013}; ^{Savi & Ulbricht, 2008}).

The result of the Code subtest, which composes the Processing Speed Index and involves skills such as concentration, visual memory and short-term memory, visual discrimination and cognitive flexibility (^{Wechsler, 2015}), showed a better performance of the participating group. However, in the Search Symbols subtest, we obtained a better performance in the control group, which may be justified because it was the last test applied or, still, other environmental or psychological factors may have influenced. Despite this, we emphasize that, in general, the participant group performed better in activities and tests when compared to the control group. The results reinforce the idea that children with difficulties related to executive functions end up benefiting more from training when using digital games. This offers the possibility of these children reaching levels close to their peers, which guarantees better learning conditions (^{Diamond, 2012}).

5 Final considerations

The results obtained reinforce that the use of games can contribute to the development of executive functions, including children participating in the SES. We emphasize that the characteristics of the game, such as rules, create experiences for the exercise of self-control, when defining limits and what can be done. At the same time that challenges and storytelling create a fun and playful context, the ability to repeat actions and feedbacks often provide a safe learning environment.

Despite the described indicatives of improvement, we recognized the limitations of the study that was based on observations and application of tests, since it would be necessary to deepen, especially in the context of the classroom, on the changes resulting from the interventions. In addition, the games were used for a few weeks due to circumstances other than the research and the end of the school year.

Many questions can be raised from the approach carried out with the games in the context of SES, which can encourage and guide future studies, such as valuing the use of the digital game as a differentiated context of learning and exercise of cognitive functions.