Improving children’s mathematical skills using home-based games

• In Event: Using Family Routines to Improve Children’s Literacy and Math Skills and Parenting Practices

Abstract

Children have intuitive knowledge about mathematics even before they are formally taught in school. For example, they have numerical representations of large approximate quantities (e.g., the distinction between 20 and 40) and of small exact quantities (e.g., the distinctions between 1, 2, and 3). They also have geometric representations of large navigable layouts (e.g., the distances and directions of places in the layout) and of the shapes of small objects (e.g., their relative lengths and angles). Can this intuitive knowledge be leveraged to enhance the learning of school-based mathematics?

In experiment 1, we trained 6-7-year-old children’s intuitive abilities using games that were played at home with their caregiver(s) for 2-3 weeks. Children were randomly assigned to one of three conditions (number, geometry, or no-treatment control) while also equating for age, gender, and time during the school year. Children in the number condition played two games exercising their intuitive numerical representations, which required them to: a) approximately add and compare large sets of dots in a ratio-dependent manner; and b) relate small numerical magnitudes to positions on a line by establishing one-to-one correspondence relations between shapes and movements on a linear board. Children in the geometry condition played two games exercising their intuitive geometric representations, which required them to: a) find a figure that did not belong with the rest based on a geometric property and b) use small-scale maps to place objects in a larger layout. Children in the no-treatment condition received no games. Before and after training, all children completed tests measuring their intuitive and school-based numerical and geometric skills, administered by condition-masked experimenters. Children who played the geometry games significantly improved in their intuitive and school-based geometry skills as compared with children in the number and no-treatment control conditions. Children who played the number games showed no relative advantage on their intuitive or school-based numerical skills.

What kind of training can improve children’s school-based numerical skills? Experiment 2 used a similar home-based training, but focused on 5-6-year-old children’s school-based numerical skills directly by aiming to improve their understanding of base-10 compositionality. Similar to experiment 1, children were randomly assigned to either the number or the active control social-cognitive conditions, again equating for age, gender, and time during the school year. Children in the number condition played a board game, which required them to create mappings between grouped dots by tens, spaces on a 5x10 number board, and number words. Children in the social-cognitive condition played a card sorting game, which required them to reason about theory of mind. Children who played the number game significantly improved in their school-based numerical skills compared with children who played the social-cognitive game. All of this research was planned and conducted prior to the onset of the school closures that occurred in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In light of this crisis, our findings have new relevance, as they show that making educational games available to families in their homes can help foster children’s skills at the foundations of learning mathematics.

Authors

• Akshita Srinivasan, Harvard University
  Presenting Author

• Moira R. Dillon, New York University

• Elizabeth S. Spelke, Harvard University