Quick Links
Project Rationale
The goal of the current project is to develop a more comprehensive theory of early mathematics development. Most research and theory on young children’s mathematics knowledge focuses exclusively on children’s numeracy knowledge (Baroody, Eiland, & Thompson, 2009; Jordan, Kaplan, Nabors Olah, & Locuniak, 2006; Purpura & Lonigan, 2013); however, early math knowledge includes a wider range of skills than what is studied, or included in Common Core State Standards ( CCSS, 2010; National Research Council, 2009; Sarama & Clements, 2004). This research project focuses on two important, but under-researched skills that recent evidence suggests are important contributors to early mathematics development: pattern and spatial skills. This project, funded by the Heising-Simons Foundation, takes advantage of data that will be collected as part of our current IES-funded project during the 2016-17 school year to follow the children into Kindergarten to predict their math knowledge in formal schooling.
This funding also allows us to explore the role of parents in children’s early math development. Recent research indicates parent-child numeracy experiences support children’s numeracy development (e.g., Levine, Suriyakham, Rowe, Huttenlocher, & Gunderson, 2010) and that the frequency of these number-related experiences are associated with parents’ math-related beliefs (Zippert & Ramani, 2016). However, previous research has not examined how parents support pattern and spatial skills at home, how they interact during math activities, how their math-related beliefs explain variation in parental support , nor how these parent-child experiences relate to children’s concurrent and future mathematics skills. This research will contribute to a more comprehensive theory of early math development that integrates a broader range of math-relevant skills and that incorporates how and what predicts parents’ support of this development. The timing of this research is critical to inform efforts to engage families and teachers in supporting a broad range of early math skills at home.
Project Aims
This 2-year project will:
1. Study 1: Explore how parents support children’s pattern, spatial and number skills in preschool through their parent-child playful experiences, how this is influenced by parents’ math-related beliefs, and how each influence children’s mathematics development over time.
2. Study 2: Evaluate how well children’s pattern and spatial skills in preschool predict their mathematics knowledge after entering formal schooling.