Can Programming Improve Executive Functions in Preschoolers? A Pilot Study on Low‐ and Middle‐Socioeconomic Status Schools

To achieve the United Nations' Sustainable Goal 4 for equitable quality education, many countries are incorporating computer programming into preschool curricula. The main reason for this educational decision lies in the need for a better understanding of the digital world, and also, in the still not fully explored idea that learning to program could have potential collateral cognitive benefits. This pilot study analyzed whether programming instruction enhances executive functions-both key 21st-century skills-, attention and non-verbal intelligence and whether the improvements vary by socioeconomic status (SES). A cluster-randomized controlled trial was conducted in Argentina with one low-SES and one medium-SES kindergarten. Five-year-old classrooms at each school were randomly assigned to a study group, receiving programming lessons with ScratchJr, or a control group engaging in visual arts activities. Both groups used tablets, and sessions were conducted by regular classroom teachers. Ninety-four children completed computerized cognitive tests before and after the intervention and control activities, yielding 21,801 trials for analysis. We modeled children's trial-by-trial accuracy using a Bernoulli-distributed Generalized Linear Mixed Model that we estimated with Bayesian methods. Our results suggested the programming group showed greater improvement than the control group in most cognitive tasks but the benefits were consistently larger for children in the low-SES school (65%-92% greater than controls) with high certainty, while middle-SES children showed only modest improvements (13%-36%) with weaker evidence. These findings tentatively suggest that teaching programming, besides its intrinsic educational value, could also potentially contribute to developing critical cognitive processes, particularly among vulnerable children.