Efectos de un programa de intervención lectora gamificada: un estudio cuasi-experimental en niños ecuatorianos

Promoting reading skills in middle childhood is essential for comprehensive development. However, global, national, and local research highlights limited progress in these skills. This study evaluated the impact of an intervention program to improve reading skills in 73 fifth-grade students from schools in Cuenca during the period September 2022–February 2023, distributed across three quasi-experimental studies. The researchers used the PROLEC-R test to assess participants during the pretest and posttest phases. Experimental groups participated in eight thematic sessions, while control groups received no support. The Mann-Whitney U and Wilcoxon W statistical tests were used for the analysis of differences,, and biserial rank correlation was applied to calculate effect size. Results showed significant intra-group improvements (p ≤ 0.05) in all three studies. In the post test intergroup analysis of the third study, the experimental group showed significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) in Letter Identification (Same-Different) and Semantic Comprehension (Sentence and Text Comprehension). In conclusion, while all studies evidenced significant intra-group improvements, the intergroup analysis of the third study demonstrated the effectiveness of the intervention program, highlighting the importance of gamified activities in strengthening reading processes.