Narrowing the early mathematics gap: A play-based intervention to promote low-income preschoolers’ number skills
Author(s) / Creator(s)
Scalise, Nicole R.
Daubert, Emily N.
Ramani, Geetha B.
Abstract / Description
Preschoolers from low-income households lag behind preschoolers from middle-income households on numerical skills that underlie later mathematics achievement. However, it is unknown whether these gaps exist on parallel measures of symbolic and non-symbolic numerical skills. Experiment 1 indicated preschoolers from low-income backgrounds were less accurate than peers from middle-income backgrounds on a measure of symbolic magnitude comparison, but they performed equivalently on a measure of non-symbolic magnitude comparison. This suggests activities linking non-symbolic and symbolic number representations may be used to support children’s numerical knowledge. Experiment 2 randomly assigned low-income preschoolers (Mean Age = 4.7 years) to play either a numerical magnitude comparison or a numerical matching card game across four 15 min sessions over a 3-week period. The magnitude comparison card game led to significant improvements in participants’ symbolic magnitude comparison skills in an immediate posttest assessment. Following the intervention, low-income participants performed equivalently to an age- and gender-matched sample of middle-income preschoolers in symbolic magnitude comparison. These results suggest a brief intervention that combines non-symbolic and symbolic magnitude representations can support low-income preschoolers’ early numerical knowledge.
Keyword(s)
numerical knowledge early mathematics low-income interventionsPersistent Identifier
Date of first publication
2018-01-30
Journal title
Journal of Numerical Cognition
Volume
3
Issue
3
Page numbers
559–581
Publisher
PsychOpen GOLD
Publication status
publishedVersion
Review status
peerReviewed
Is version of
Citation
Scalise, N. R., Daubert, E. N., & Ramani, G. B. (2018). Narrowing the early mathematics gap: A play-based intervention to promote low-income preschoolers’ number skills. Journal of Numerical Cognition, 3(3), 559–581. https://doi.org/10.5964/jnc.v3i3.72
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jnc.v3i3.72.pdfAdobe PDF - 318.86KBMD5: de16acb24bfad476c37b0335bbe33d8b
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Scalise, Nicole R.
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Daubert, Emily N.
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Ramani, Geetha B.
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PsychArchives acquisition timestamp2018-11-21T11:42:51Z
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Made available on2018-11-21T11:42:51Z
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Date of first publication2018-01-30
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Abstract / DescriptionPreschoolers from low-income households lag behind preschoolers from middle-income households on numerical skills that underlie later mathematics achievement. However, it is unknown whether these gaps exist on parallel measures of symbolic and non-symbolic numerical skills. Experiment 1 indicated preschoolers from low-income backgrounds were less accurate than peers from middle-income backgrounds on a measure of symbolic magnitude comparison, but they performed equivalently on a measure of non-symbolic magnitude comparison. This suggests activities linking non-symbolic and symbolic number representations may be used to support children’s numerical knowledge. Experiment 2 randomly assigned low-income preschoolers (Mean Age = 4.7 years) to play either a numerical magnitude comparison or a numerical matching card game across four 15 min sessions over a 3-week period. The magnitude comparison card game led to significant improvements in participants’ symbolic magnitude comparison skills in an immediate posttest assessment. Following the intervention, low-income participants performed equivalently to an age- and gender-matched sample of middle-income preschoolers in symbolic magnitude comparison. These results suggest a brief intervention that combines non-symbolic and symbolic magnitude representations can support low-income preschoolers’ early numerical knowledge.en_US
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Publication statuspublishedVersion
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Review statuspeerReviewed
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CitationScalise, N. R., Daubert, E. N., & Ramani, G. B. (2018). Narrowing the early mathematics gap: A play-based intervention to promote low-income preschoolers’ number skills. Journal of Numerical Cognition, 3(3), 559–581. https://doi.org/10.5964/jnc.v3i3.72en_US
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ISSN2363-8761
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Persistent Identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/1279
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Persistent Identifierhttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.1471
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Language of contenteng
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PublisherPsychOpen GOLD
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Is version ofhttps://doi.org/10.5964/jnc.v3i3.72
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Keyword(s)numerical knowledgeen_US
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Keyword(s)early mathematicsen_US
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Keyword(s)low-incomeen_US
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Keyword(s)interventionsen_US
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Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)150
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TitleNarrowing the early mathematics gap: A play-based intervention to promote low-income preschoolers’ number skillsen_US
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DRO typearticle
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Issue3
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Journal titleJournal of Numerical Cognition
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Page numbers559–581
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Volume3
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Visible tag(s)Version of Record