Original title: TrainKids: App-based training of executive functions in children and insights into cognitive activities at home
Efsun Birtwistle, Anna Kroesen, Frank Niklas · August 2026
Many young kids use screens every day. Too much media can harm development, but well-designed apps might help kids learn. Researchers wanted to know if brain-training games actually build broader mental skills. They tested an app-based cognitive training program over seven weeks with young children. The training aimed to boost executive functionsThe mental skills for focusing, remembering instructions, and resisting impulses., which are mental skills that help you focus, plan, and control actions. Researchers tested if practice led to near transfer, which means getting better at closely related tasks, or far transfer, which means improving on different, everyday skills like early schoolwork. What happened? The app had only limited effects. Kids got better at both types of tasks over time, but these improvements did not beat simple practice effectsImprovements that come simply from taking a test twice, not from real learning. from taking tests twice. Researchers also noticed trends in literacy and found that executive function struggles linked to numeracy and literacy scores at home.
Imagine you spend seven weeks doing football drills on your phone to get better at the sport. At the end, your passing and shooting scores go up, and you feel like the drills worked. But a friend who never did the drills improves just as much, simply from taking the same test twice. In this paper, the children's app-based training showed the same pattern: scores rose over time, but not beyond what practice with the test itself could explain.
Parents and educators spend real money and screen time on cognitive training apps for young children. This study suggests the average app-based programme may not deliver benefits beyond simple practice, so families should be cautious about expecting transfer to reading or maths. It also points to home environment and a child's existing executive function difficulties as factors future interventions need to address.
The abstract does not show that the training produced gains beyond practice effects, nor does it establish that the home-environment correlations are causal. It also does not identify which specific training dosage or content would be effective for which children.
Ask anything about this paper. Answers come from its abstract, and say so when the abstract doesn't cover your question.
TrainKids: App-based training of executive functions in children and insights into cognitive activities at home — Efsun Birtwistle, Anna Kroesen, Frank Niklas — Journal of experimental child psychology — doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106608
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.