Background. Heritage games may offer culturally responsive ways to strengthen preschoolers’ meta-skills that support early mathematics and science learning, yet evidence from Central Asia is limited.
Objective. To examine whether a traditional Kazakh game, Asyk atu, improves metacognitive regulation and self-regulation behaviours in Kazakh-speaking preschoolers.
Sample. 108 children aged 5–6 years (66% girls; mean age 5.46 years) from four intact kindergarten groups in Almaty; the sample reflected the usual composition of classrooms.
Methods. Cluster pretest–posttest quasi-experiment (September 2024–May 2025); 101 children completed posttesting. The intervention included 72 teacher-led 30-min sessions twice weekly integrating explicit planning–monitoring–evaluation prompts into Asyk atu play, while comparison groups continued usual practice. Metacognitive regulation (0–24) was coded from a standardized play-based problem-solving task, and meta-understanding (0–8) from a four-item reflective interview.
Results. For 5-year-olds, metacognitive regulation increased from 10.6±3.4 to 15.07±3.0 in the intervention group versus 10.7±3.2 to 11.5±3.1 in the comparison group (Δ=3.67; p=0.018; d=0.78). For 6-year-olds, gains were 12.35±3.2 to 16.12±2.9 versus 12.4±3.1 to 13.0±3.0 (Δ=3.17; p=0.041; d=0.61). Meta-understanding improved in the intervention group, but between-group differences were not statistically significant.
Conclusion. A year-long, low-cost Asyk atu program embedded in routine preschool practice produced moderate-to-large improvements in observed metacognitive/self-regulation behaviours.