Novel Approaches to Strengthening Young Children's Math and Executive Functioning Skills

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

There is robust evidence of the tight-knit relation between young children’s math and executive functioning skills (e.g., cognitive flexibility, response inhibition, working memory) (Blair & Razza, 2007; McClelland et al., 2014). When preschoolers are first learning how to add, compare number quantities, and identify shapes and patterns, EF skills can be particularly helpful in being able to hold quantities in mind, cognitively switch between units, and attend to pertinent information in a math problem. Similarly, the acquisition and practice of these math skills can in turn strengthen children’s EF skills. As such, the bidirectionality can be tricky to parse and has led to scholarly debate on the best approaches to nurture both EF and math skills in young children (Clements et al., 2016). To date, only a few studies in early childhood education have evaluated combined math and EF curricula (Clements et al., 2020; Farran et al., 2011), and even fewer have explicitly integrated math and EF content together in a single intervention approach (McClelland et al., 2019). Considering mixed findings of the efficacy of these interventions, this symposium offers new evidence for combining EF and math content in a lab training (Paper 1), a classroom context with coaches and teachers (Paper 2), as well as manipulating instruction to scaffold children’s EF skills during children’s learning of geometry (Paper 3) and addition (Paper 4). Taken together, this symposium offers novel approaches for supporting preschoolers’ executive functioning and math skill development which has implications for teacher professional development and curricula.

Sub Unit

• Education, Schooling

Chair

• Lillie Moffett, None

Individual Presentations

• Baseline EF Skills are Associated With Children’s Responsiveness to Different Types of Numeracy Training - Presenting Author: Jenny Yun-Chen Chan, TheEducation University of Hong Kong; Non-Presenting Author: Maria D Sera, University of Minnesota; Non-Presenting Author: Michele Mazzocco, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Preschool Teachers' Barriers to Implementing Combined Math and Executive Functioning Activities - Presenting Author: Lillie Moffett, None; Non-Presenting Author: Rosa Valdes, LAUP

• Associations Between Use of Scaffolds and Preschooler’s Accuracy and Working Memory During Early Geometry Instruction - Presenting Author: Christina Mulcahy, University of Denver; Non-Presenting Author: Holland Banse, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa; Non-Presenting Author: Douglas H Clements, University of Denver; Non-Presenting Author: Crystal A Day-Hess, University of Denver

• Teaching Moves Associated With Preschoolers’ Arithmetical Accuracy and Working Memory - Presenting Author: Holland Banse, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa; Non-Presenting Author: Douglas H Clements, University of Denver; Non-Presenting Author: Christina Mulcahy, University of Denver; Non-Presenting Author: Crystal A Day-Hess, University of Denver