Early numeracy skills in preschool-aged children: a review of neurocognitive findings and implications for assessment and intervention

Abstract

Objectives: The goals are to 1) provide a review of the typical and atypical development of early numeracy; 2) present what is known about the neurocognitive underpinnings of early numeracy; and 3) discuss the implications for early assessment and intervention. Method: Studies on the development of typical and atypical early numeracy are reviewed with a particular focus on longitudinal findings including those from our work on spina bifida myelomeningocele. Implications of this research for assessment are presented. The paper ends with a discussion of early math interventions. Results: Learning to count, identify numbers, and compare and manipulate quantities are key early numeracy skills. These are powerful predictors of school-age mathematical learning and performance. General neurocognitive abilities such as working memory and language, are also important for the development of early numeracy. It is recommended that early assessment for risk of mathematical learning difficulties include tests of both early number knowledge and key neurocognitive abilities. Math-specific interventions are most effective for improving early numeracy. There is currently little evidence that training of general cognitive functions transfers to mathematical learning. Conclusion: Understanding the development of early numeracy skills and their neurocognitive predictors offer important insights into early assessment and intervention for children at risk for or with mathematical learning difficulties.

Early Number Knowledge in Dual-Language Learners From Low-SES Households

“…But where we were able to measure ANS acuity, it did not differ very much between children from high-and low-SES households. It differed enough for us to measure, but not enough to matter much in everyday life (or in math class), and the difference seems very unlikely to be the source of the huge gaps we find in children's knowledge of spoken and written numbers already by age 4 (For related findings, see Geary & vanMarle, 2016;Merkley & Ansari, 2016;Raghubar & Barnes, 2017).…”

“…The other number representations that may be relevant to early education are written numerals (Geary & vanMarle, 2016;Merkley & Ansari, 2016;Purpura & Lonigan, 2015;Raghubar & Barnes, 2017).…”

Innate or Acquired? – Disentangling Number Sense and Early Number Competencies

“…A recent meta-analysis further suggests that early number competence but not WM predicts calculation performance in at-risk children ( Peng et al, 2016a ). In addition, while math training programs were found to have the largest effects on early number competence, improving domain-general cognitive skills does not seem to transfer to enhanced mathematical achievement (see Raghubar and Barnes, 2017 ).…”

Low-achieving grade K-3 children’s early numeracy competences: a systematic literature review

“…Further, suggestions on what is needed in future research from an educational perspective are put forth. Previous reviews differ from this review in that other authors have analysed effective interventions (Kroesbergen and Van Luit 2003;Mononen et al 2014), employed a neuropsychological approach (Raghubara and Barnes 2017) or used different inclusion criteria regarding participants (Sinnakaudan et al 2016) (for more details see section Previous reviews). Based on a meta-analysis of six longitudinal studies, Duncan et al (2007) found that the strongest predictors of later school achievement were school-entry mathematics skills, which were argued to be more important than reading and attention skills.…”