The effect of play at home (proposed by UNICEF) and metacognitive strategies on the health of children aged 5 to 8 years in the Corona pandemic

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of play at home, as proposed by UNICEF, and metacognitive strategies on the health of children aged 5 to 8 years during the Corona pandemic.
This study utilized a quasi-experimental intervention design, with a pretest and posttest control group. The participants were 84 children living in Qom, who were randomly divided into 6 groups. There were two age groups, each consisting of three groups: UNICEF, UNICEF Plus, and a control group. The intervention involved 18 sessions of UNICEF-proposed quadruple games. The UNICEF Plus group also engaged in a semi-structured interview to stimulate metacognition.
The results of the Mixed ANOVA and ANCOVA tests indicated that most of the training groups showed a significant improvement in health test results from pretest to posttest. However, the ANCOVA test did not reveal any significant difference between the UNICEF and UNICEF Plus groups in the two age groups; despite the UNICEF Plus group scoring better than the UNICEF group in both age groups.
Overall, it can be concluded that the exercises recommended by UNICEF were effective in promoting children's health. Although the combination of these exercises with metacognitive strategies did not meet expectations, there was a slight improvement in children's health favoring the combined exercises.