Doctoral student of the educational program “Preschool Education and Upbringing”, Kazakh National Pedagogical University named after Abai, Almaty, Kazakhstan
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.