SBIR Phase I: A Game-Based Neuro-Cognitive Assessment Tool for School Readiness

This Phase I project's objective is to promote school readiness for Pre-K and Kindergarten students by providing support for neuro-cognitive skills, such as executive functioning and reasoning, shown to be critical for school success. The first aim is to build a prototype of a game-based assessment tool for these skills that can be implemented in classrooms to measure these skills as a baseline and to track and measure progress over time. If proven feasible, the prototype is expected to assess a child's skills in five neuro-cognitive areas in 10-15 minutes with minimal adult intervention and provide recommendations for further support. Phase I of this project will focus on developing the prototype, testing usability and feasibility with Pre-K students and teachers, and collecting data to calibrate the tool using factor analysis and item-response theory. The broader impact of this research is to gather rich data that will advance the scientific community's understanding of cognitive development in relation to multiple factors and to increase the ability to evaluate the impact of targeted interventions. In addition, commercialization of the proposed tool will help increase teachers' and caregivers' awareness of these skills and shift classroom practices towards fostering the critical underlying skills for school readiness. This project will build a prototype using constructs that are based on neuropsychological tasks designed to target these skills in lab research. Five skills will be included in the prototype: working memory, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, reasoning and spatial skills. First, results from a convergent reliability study fielded in spring 2016 comparing Pre-K students' performance in these constructs vs. normed reference tests will be used to refine and improve the reliability of the constructs. Next, the prototype will undergo usability and feasibility testing with Pre-K students and teachers. The goal is to optimize the experience such that it can be completed in a single 15-minute session with minimal adult intervention. Finally, data will be gathered to calibrate the tool using factor analysis and item-response theory to refine the test branching algorithms. At the end of Phase I, the prototype will be ready for further research to normalize the results nationally.