Poster #33 - It’s not Just Semantics: The Link Between Language and Early Numeracy

• In Event: 2-055 - Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Section - Cognitive Processes

Integrative Statement

A growing body of research suggests language plays an important role in the development of early numerical skills. More specifically, language has been found to predict informal numeracy skills (skills acquired before schooling; e.g., verbal counting) and formal numeracy performance (e.g., complex arithmetic; LeFevre et al., 2010; Moll et al., 2015; Purpura & Reid, 2016). Although studies examining this relationship typically include several numerical skills, often only a single aspect of language is included. Critically, it is plausible that different aspects of language (semantics, syntax) influence specific numeracy skills (number identification, verbal counting). Therefore, despite research emphasizing the relationship between language and numeracy, the precise mechanisms of this relationship remain largely unknown. As such, our study addresses this issue by investigating whether semantic, syntactic, and relational language at age 3 predicts one-to-one correspondence, stable order, Arabic numeral identification, and verbal counting sequence knowledge. We hypothesized that: 1) semantic language would predict Arabic numeral identification and one-to-one correspondence, given these skills require providing a meaningful label to a specific object or symbol, 2) syntactic language would predict verbal counting and counting principles, as these skills entail an understanding of how numbers are properly sequenced, and 3) relational language would predict verbal counting and counting principles since these skills may involve an understanding of how numbers in the counting sequence relate to each other (e.g., 1 comes before 2 and not after).
Participants included 37 children (22 males) who were given measures of semantic and syntactic language and relational language at 3 years of age and measures of Arabic numeral identification, verbal counting, and counting principle knowledge (one-to-one correspondence and stable order) four months to one year later. Contrary to expectations, analyses revealed that semantic language was not correlated with any numerical variables. However, relational language, a specific area within semantic language, was correlated with all numeracy variables. Further, syntactic language not only predicted verbal counting, but also Arabic numeral identification. Two multiple regression models were examined to look at the relative contribution of relational and syntactic language to verbal counting and stable order knowledge. Results indicated that only relational language was a significant predictor of verbal counting and stable order knowledge.
Our findings suggest that relational language, in particular, may be key in understanding early numerical concepts. To illustrate, for a child to produce the correct sequence of numbers, knowledge regarding the relations among numbers (e.g., 2 comes after 1 and before 3) might be more important than knowledge of verbal number labels (semantics). However, when counting become complex, the ability to manipulate structure and detect number patterns may rely more on syntax (e.g., counting backwards). Overall, our results highlight the importance of examining the contribution of specific language components to later numerical skills in more depth and with larger samples. Importantly, discovering how different aspects of language relate to numerical skills can help to inform intervention and prevention programs for those at risk or struggling with mathematical concepts.

Authors

• Jerrica Mulgrew, Trent University
  Presenting Author

• Nancie Im-Bolter, Trent University
  Non-Presenting Author