Poster #185 - When do Preschoolers Learn Specific Mathematics Skills? Mapping the Development of Children's Early Numeracy Knowledge

• In Event: 1-005 - Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Section - School Readiness/Childcare

Integrative Statement

Introduction

Children’s early mathematics skills have consistently been shown to predict both their later reading and mathematics achievement (Claessens, Duncan, & Engel, 2009; Duncan et al., 2007; Watts, Duncan, Siegler, & Davis-Kean, 2014). Despite this importance, early childcare teachers tend to underemphasize mathematics activities and instruction as compared to literacy (La Paro et al., 2009; Piasta, Pelatti, & Miller, 2014) and often underestimate children’s ability levels (Bodovski & Farkas, 2007; Engel et al., 2013; Engel et al., 2016). In order to improve children’s experiences with early mathematics, it is important to better understand age-related changes in children’s performance. Although there are currently general learning trajectories that indicate approximately when children should acquire certain mathematics skills (e.g., Clements & Sarama, 2014), no prior longitudinal or cross-sectional studies examine children’s performance across multiple numeracy skills across the preschool years.

Research Aims

With the current cross-sectional work, we aim to develop a fine-grained trajectory of children’s mathematical abilities during the preschool period by examining children’s performance on specific components of nine numeracy subtests at half-year age points throughout the preschool years.

Method

Data were compiled across multiple studies from two locations in the United States. Children (N = 801) ranged in age from 3.12 to 5.99 years (see Table 1 for additional demographic information). Children completed nine numeracy measures (Purpura & Lonigan, 2015; i.e., one-to-one counting, cardinality [how many], cardinality [give n], subitizing, verbal counting, number identification, story problems [addition], story problems [subtraction], and formal addition).

Analytic Procedure and Results

Linear regressions were used in the analyses, as logistic regressions cannot provide accurate estimates for the standard errors when there is perfect prediction. To conduct these analyses, children’s age was first categorized into six brackets with continuous age rounded down to the nearest half-year (e.g., age 3 = 3 years 0 months to less than 3 years 6 months (n = 54), age 3.5 (n = 111), age 4 (n = 147), age 4.5 (n = 216), age 5 (n = 183), and age 5.5 (n = 90). These categorical age variables were dummy coded and used as the predictor variables for the regression analyses. Regressions were run predicting performance (0 = incorrect, 1 = correct) on each item across all numeracy subtests. Sample results for children’s one-to-one correspondence are depicted in Figure 1.

Conclusions

Findings from the current study provide a more detailed picture of children’s within-skill mathematics development. Such findings can inform classroom instruction, in hopes of fostering better alignment between the instruction and activities that preschool teachers provide and their students’ skill levels. As our data are cross-sectional, however, we cannot make inferences regarding children’s growth on these skills. Future research should thus pursue similar aims with a longitudinal design, in order to be able to attribute changes in children’s performance levels to within-individual growth.

Authors

• Ellen Litkowski, Purdue University
  Presenting Author

• Robert Duncan, Purdue University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jessica Logan, The Ohio State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• David Purpura, Purdue University
  Non-Presenting Author