Coming Together: R&D and Children's Entertainment Company in Designing APPs for Learning Early Math.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have an increasing influence on the way we interact, learn, and live. The increase in teaching and learning methodologies that are mediated by ICT in the field of education and in the domestic settings encourages the design of new effective technological tools, supported by scientific research and development to improve student learning. The challenge psychology is facing in the education field is to promote those technologies and make them available to the education community. Technologies also would produce attractive items for users and realistic commercial issues for businesses. This also allows an effective transfer for scientific work, providing visibility to Research and Development. In this context, the main aim of the article is to describe the process to get an agreement between Babyradio (a children's entertainment company: https://babyradio.es/) and our research team, starting a collaborative work between two groups of people (Babyradio's technical designer and Psychologist-Engineers software designer), in order to create several educative applications (APPs) in the field of early mathematics cognition. The institutional framework of the relationship of the R&D project and a children's entertainment company is described. The article also focuses on experience in Psychology, Technological Innovation, and Entrepreneurship. In considering the efficiency of the agreement, we present different APPs designed for tablets and smartphone devices, adapted to the different operating systems (IOS, Android, Windows). APPs are designed to instill the cognitive fundamentals associated with early math learning for students aged 4 to 7 years. The study developed after this babyradio-university enterprise agreement contributes to the development of mathematics skills in children, aged 4-7 years, so that they can successfully meet the mathematics school requirements; it also contributes to encouraging a more positive attitude toward mathematics. This study also suggests how the education system and software and educational content developers' companies would manage verified instructional APPs, with a more realistic commercial perspective.

Longitudinal study of low and high achievers in early mathematics.

BACKGROUND: Longitudinal studies allow us to identify, which specific maths skills are weak in young children, and whether there is a continuing weakness in these areas throughout their school years. AIMS: This 2-year study investigated whether certain socio-demographic variables affect early mathematical competency in children aged 5-7 years. SAMPLE: A randomly selected sample of 127 students (64 female; 63 male) participated. At the start of the study, the students were approximately 5 years old (M= 5.2; SD= 0.28; range = 4.5-5.8). METHOD: The students were assessed using the Early Numeracy Test and then allocated to a high (n= 26), middle (n= 76), or low (n= 25) achievers group. The same children were assessed again with the Early Numeracy Test at 6 and 7 years old, respectively. Eight socio-demographic characteristics were also evaluated: family model, education of the parent(s), job of the parent(s), number of family members, birth order, number of computers at home, frequency of teacher visits, and hours watching television. RESULTS: Early Numeracy Test scores were more consistent for the high-achievers group than for the low-achievers group. Approximately 5.5% of low achievers obtained low scores throughout the study. A link between specific socio-demographic characteristics and early achievement in mathematics was only found for number of computers at home. CONCLUSIONS: The level of mathematical ability among students aged 5-7 years remains relatively stable regardless of the initial level of achievement. However, early screening for mathematics learning disabilities could be useful in helping low-achieving students overcome learning obstacles.

Inhibitory processes, working memory, phonological awareness, naming speed, and early arithmetic achievement.

This study identified the cognitive processes that underlie the individual differences in early mathematical performance in elementary school children. Taking into account the Baddeley framework multicomponent model, the inhibitory processes, working memory, phonological awareness, and naming speed are considered to be related to early math learning. To examine this relationship, we compared the performance of a total of 424 typically developing middle-class children, aged between 4 and 7 years in a battery of cognitive and early numeric tests: The Utrecht Early Numeracy Test, the Rapid Automatized Naming Test, Spanish version of the Stroop task, the Numeracy Interference Test, Digit Span test, and Phonological Knowledge Test. The mean age of the participants was 72.21 months (sd = 14.8), and 48.6% were male and 51.4% were female. The results demonstrated that children performing worst on central executive, phonological processing, and inhibitory processes showed lower results in early mathematical tasks measured by The Utrecht Early Numeracy Test. Results supported the notion that the executive system is an important predictor of children's mathematical performance.

Inhibitory processes, working memory, phonological awareness, naming speed, and early arithmetic achievement

This study identified the cognitive processes that underlie the individual differences in early mathematical performance in elementary school children. Taking into account the Baddeley framework multicomponent model, the inhibitory processes, working memory, phonological awareness, and naming speed are considered to be related to early math learning. To examine this relationship, we compared the performance of a total of 424 typically developing middleclass children, aged between 4 and 7 years in a battery of cognitive and early numeric tests: The Utrecht Early Numeracy Test, the Rapid Automatized Naming Test, Spanish version of the Stroop task, the Numeracy Interference Test, Digit Span test, and Phonological Knowledge Test. The mean age of the participants was 72.21 months (sd = 14.8), and 48.6% were male and 51.4% were female. The results demonstrated that children performing worst on central executive, phonological processing, and inhibitory processes showed lower results in early mathematical tasks measured by The Utrecht Early Numeracy Test. Results supported the notion that the executive system is an important predictor of children’s mathematical performance (AU)

En este trabajo se identificaron las variables que están en la base de las diferencias de rendimiento en matemáticas en los primeros años de escolarización. Teniendo en cuenta el modelo multicomponente de Baddeley, se ha considerado que los procesos inhibitorios, la memoria de trabajo, la conciencia fonológica y la velocidad de denominación están a la base del aprendizaje matemático temprano. Con el fin de examinar esta relación se ha evaluado a un total de 424 escolares de 4 a 7 años (48,6 % eran niños y 51,4 % niñas) con una batería de pruebas cognitivas y de rendimiento matemático: el test de Utrech de matemática temprana, el test de velocidad de nominación, la versión española de la tarea de Stroop, un test de memoria de dígitos y un test de conciencia fonológica. Los resultados mostraron que aquellos alumnos que obtenían peores resultados en memoria de trabajo, conciencia fonológica y procesos inhibitorios, mostraban también peores resultados en tareas matemáticas evaluadas por el test de Utrech. Estos resultados apoyan la noción de que el funcionamiento de los procesos ejecutivos puede predecir los resultados en actividades de matemáticas tempranas (AU)

Positive behavioral intervention in children who were wards of the court attending a mainstream school.

This report looked at the effects of treatment using contingency contracts and token economy procedures in three children, two 14 yr. and one 8 yr., who were wards of the court and attending a mainstream school. Students presented problems of adaptation to school, such as making constant noises with the mouth, hands, or pencil on the desk; frequently emitted raucous cries in the classroom; destruction of school resource materials; verbal aggression to classmates and teachers; verbal rejection of all academic work, refusing to do it, making negative comments prior to starting any school activity, in addition to lack of motivation for undertaking school activities. A 4-mo. individual treatment using contingency contracts and token economy behavioral procedures was implemented, with several follow-up sessions. The results indicated an adaptation of behavior to the school environment, confirmed by teachers, significantly reducing the incidence of insults, the destruction of school materials, and indolence during class sessions. These students are at high risk for social exclusion. Interventions have potential social importance in possible prevention of adult criminality, increasing academic achievement, and decreasing social exclusion.

El aprendizaje de conceptos de comparación, seriación y clasificación en personas con retraso mental / Learning of comparison, seriation and classification concepts in children with mental disabilities

Los conceptos de seriación, clasificación o comparación son resultado de la evoluciónadaptativa del niño y consecuencia, en mayor o menor medida, de su entrenamiento específico.En el niño normal este entrenamiento puede darse tanto en situaciones no estructuradascomo estructuradas, pero en el discapacitado psíquico la resultante de estas dos fuerzasdebe incrementarse añadiendo más componentes al vector aprendizaje estructurado, dadoslos déficits cognitivos de estas personas. Este estudio pretende considerar si los conceptosevolutivos de comparación, clasificación y seriación pueden ser entrenados en personascon retraso mental mediante un software informático. Quince participantes con diferentestipos de discapacidad psíquica, que desconocen el manejo de los conceptos referidos,recibieron sesiones de entrenamiento exhaustivo de los conceptos de comparación, clasificacióny seriación, mediante un sistema de enseñanza asistida por ordenador durante sutiempo de escolarización. Se hipotetizó que un entrenamiento exhaustivo en los conceptosreferidos puede reducir los errores cometidos en las tareas multimedia de comparación,clasificación y seriación. Los resultados indicaron una mejora en los aprendizajes de losconceptos de seriación, clasificación y comparación para los participantes, presentándoselas curvas de aprendizaje y su función a lo largo de las sesiones de tratamiento(AU)

The concepts of seriation, classification and comparison are not only results ofchild development but also because of formal training consequence. Standard developmentpossibly has many structured and non structured training opportunities. But in mentallydisabled children, it is necessary to increase the structured learning because of their cognitivemalfunctioning. In this paper we studied if children with mental disabilities could betrained in the concepts of seriation, classification and comparison using specific software.15 children with mental disabilities participated. They did not know the concepts of seriation,classification and comparison. They received several Computer Assisted Teaching sessionsduring their regular school hours. The hypothesis was that exhaustive training in theseconcepts would reduce errors in the seriation, classification and comparison computertasks. Results suggest an improvement in learning these concepts for all participants. Learningcurves as a function of the training are presented(AU)