When one size does not fit all: A latent profile analysis of low-income preschoolers' math skills.

On average, preschoolers from lower-income households perform worse on symbolic numerical tasks than preschoolers from middle- and upper-income households. Although many recent studies have developed and tested mathematics interventions for low-income preschoolers, the variability within this population has received less attention. The goal of the current study was to describe the variability in low-income children's math skills using a person-centered analysis. We conducted a latent profile analysis on six measures of preschoolers' (N = 115, mean age = 4.6 years) numerical abilities (nonsymbolic magnitude comparison, verbal counting, object counting, cardinality, numeral identification, and symbolic magnitude comparison). The results showed different patterns of strengths and weaknesses and revealed four profiles of numerical skills: (a) poor math abilities on all numerical measures (n = 13), (b) strong math abilities on all numerical measures (n = 41), (c) moderate abilities on all numerical measures (n = 35), and (d) strong counting and numeral skills but poor magnitude skills (n = 26). Children's age, working memory, and inhibitory control significantly predicted their profile membership. We found evidence of quantitative and qualitative differences between profiles, such that some profiles were higher performing across tasks than others, but the overall patterns of performance varied across the different numerical skills assessed.

Pedagogical questions promote causal learning in preschoolers.

What maximizes instructional impact in early childhood? We propose a simple intervention employing "Pedagogical Questions". We explore whether swapping some instructional language with questions in psychosomatic storybooks improves preschoolers' memory, learning, and generalization. Seventy-two preschoolers were randomly assigned to one of three conditions and were read storybooks employing either Direct Instruction, Pedagogical Questions, or Control content. Posttest measures of psychosomatic understanding, judgments about the possibility of psychosomatic events, and memory for storybook details showed that children in the Pedagogical Questions condition demonstrated greater memory for relevant storybook details and improved psychosomatic understanding. Our results suggest that pedagogical questions are a relatively simple educational manipulation to improve memory, learning, and transfer of theory-rich content.

Benefits of Playing Numerical Card Games on Head Start Children's Mathematical Skills.

Low-income preschoolers have lower average performance on measures of early numerical skills than middle-income children. The present study examined the effectiveness of numerical card games in improving children's numerical and executive functioning skills. Low-income preschoolers (N=76) were randomly assigned to play a numerical magnitude comparison card game, a numerical memory and matching card game, or a shape and color matching card game across four 15-minute sessions. Child who played either of the numerical games improved their numeral identification skills, while only children who played the numerical magnitude comparison game improved their symbolic magnitude comparison skills. These improvements were maintained eight weeks later. The results suggest that a brief, low-cost intervention can successfully improve the numerical skills of low-income children.

Racing dragons and remembering aliens: Benefits of playing number and working memory games on kindergartners' numerical knowledge.

Sources that contribute to variation in mathematical achievement include both numerical knowledge and general underlying cognitive processing abilities. The current study tested the benefits of tablet-based training games that targeted each of these areas for improving the mathematical knowledge of kindergarten-age children. We hypothesized that playing a number-based game targeting numerical magnitude knowledge would improve children's broader numerical skills. We also hypothesized that the benefits of playing a working memory (WM) game would transfer to children's numerical knowledge given its important underlying role in mathematics achievement. Kindergarteners from diverse backgrounds (n = 148; 52% girls; Mage  = 71.87 months) were randomly assigned to either play a number-based game, a WM game, or a control game on a tablet for 10 sessions. Structural equation modeling was used to model children's learning gains in mathematics and WM across time. Overall, our results suggest that playing the number game improved kindergarten children's numerical knowledge at the latent level, and these improvements remained stable as assessed 1 month later. However, children in the WM group did not improve their numerical knowledge compared to children in the control condition. Playing both the number game and WM game improved children's WM at the latent level. Importantly, the WM group continued to improve their WM for at least a month after playing the games. The results demonstrate that computerized games that target both domain-specific and domain-general skills can benefit a broad range of kindergarten-aged children.

"Tap space number three": Promoting math talk during parent-child tablet play.

The prevalence of tablet computer use among young children has risen dramatically, as have educational apps claiming to promote school readiness skills such as mathematical knowledge. Parents can contribute to their preschoolers' math readiness through the math talk they provide during everyday interactions in traditional nonelectronic activities. However, it is unclear how parents talk about math during tablet play with their children, and how additional suggestions to focus on math might increase the frequency of this talk during tablet play. Fifty-one parents and their 4- and 5-year-olds (Mage = 5 years, 0 months) played with a tablet-based numerical board game for 10 min. Half of the parents were randomly assigned to receive brief additional guidance to focus on teaching their children about numbers while playing the game. All parents produced a large amount of math-related talk relative to total talk while playing the numerical tablet game, yet parents who received the additional instructions produced more math-related talk compared to parents who did not receive the additional instructions. Children also produced more math-related talk in response to parent prompting when their parents received the additional guidance. Further, parents talked significantly less about counting when their children were more skilled at counting, but only when given guidance to talk about numeracy. The findings show promising evidence that math-related tablet computer games serve as an ideal context for parent-child math talk, and with brief guidance, frequency of this talk can be increased. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Narrowing the Early Mathematics Gap: A Play-Based Intervention to Promote Low-Income Preschoolers' Number Skills.

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 (M 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.