Unleashing children’s potential: An evidence-based narrative review of strategies to enhance cognitive function and intelligence in school-age children

Figure 10  Cognitive development in children facing socioeconomic or educational disadvantages. It illustrates the pathways linking socioeconomic and educational adversity to children’s cognitive development, highlighting mechanistic targets and scalable interventions. Adverse conditions such as chronic stress, limited nutrition, and reduced enrichment negatively affect executive function, working memory, attention, and motivation, reducing learning and academic outcomes. Low-cost, high-impact interventions – including after-school programs, tutoring, enriched school meals, and parental/community engagement – mitigate these mechanisms, promoting enhanced executive function, improved academic achievement, and long-term cognitive resilience. The model emphasizes the interconnected, multi-level nature of cognitive enhancement in under-resourced populations.