Transparent number-naming system gives only limited advantage for preschooler's numerical development: Comparisons of Vietnamese and French-speaking children

Do home mathematical activities relate to early mathematical skills? A systematic review and meta-analysis

Children's foundational mathematical skills are critical for future academic attainment. While home mathematical activities (HMAs) have been proposed to support these skills, the extent to which engaging in them supports mathematical skills remains unclear. This preregistered systematic review and multilevel meta-analysis identified 351 effect sizes from 72 samples in 20 countries, exploring the relation between frequency of HMAs and mathematical skills in children aged 7 years and under (Mage = 61 months). A small significant positive relation was found (r = .13), moderated by risk of bias, with larger effects associated with a higher risk of bias. Specific ways the field can move forward are discussed to better understand the role of the home mathematical environment in early mathematics.

The efficacy of manipulatives versus fingers in supporting young children's addition skills

Recent empirical investigations have revealed that finger counting is a strategy associated with good arithmetic performance in young children. Fingers could have a special status during development because they operate as external support that provide sensory-motor and kinesthetic affordances in addition to visual input. However, it was unknown whether fingers are more helpful than manipulatives such as tokens during arithmetic problem solving. To address this question, we conducted a study with 93 Vietnamese children (48 girls) aged 4 and 5 years (mean = 58 months, range = 47-63) with high arithmetic and counting skills from families with relatively high socioeconomic status. Their behaviors were observed as they solved addition problems with manipulatives at their disposal. We found that children spontaneously used both manipulatives and fingers to solve the problems. Crucially, their performance was not higher when fingers rather than manipulatives were used (i.e., 70% vs. 81% correct answers, respectively). Therefore, at the beginning of learning, it is possible that, at least for children with high numerical skills, fingers are not the only gateway to efficient arithmetic development and manipulatives might also lead to proficient arithmetic.

Number transcoding in bilinguals—A transversal developmental study

Number transcoding is the cognitive task of converting between different numerical codes (i.e. visual “42”, verbal “forty-two”). Visual symbolic to verbal transcoding and vice versa strongly relies on language proficiency. We evaluated transcoding of German-French bilinguals from Luxembourg in 5^th, 8^th, 11^th graders and adults. In the Luxembourgish educational system, children acquire mathematics in German (LM1) until the 7^th grade, and then the language of learning mathematic switches to French (LM2). French `70s `80s `90s are less transparent than `30s `40s `50s numbers, since they have a base-20 structure, which is not the case in German. Transcoding was evaluated with a reading aloud and a verbal-visual number matching task. Results of both tasks show a cognitive cost for transcoding numbers having a base-20 structure (i.e. `70s, `80s and `90s), such that response times were slower in all age groups. Furthermore, considering only base-10 numbers (i.e. `30s `40s `50s), it appeared that transcoding in LM2 (French) also entailed a cost. While participants across age groups tended to read numbers slower in LM2, this effect was limited to the youngest age group in the matching task. In addition, participants made more errors when reading LM2 numbers. In conclusion, we observed an age-independent language effect with numbers having a base-20 structure in French, reflecting their reduced transparency with respect to the decimal system. Moreover, we find an effect of language of math acquisition such that transcoding is less well mastered in LM2. This effect tended to persist until adulthood in the reading aloud task, while in the matching task performance both languages become similar in older adolescents and young adults. This study supports the link between numbers and language, especially highlighting the impact of language on reading numbers aloud from childhood to adulthood.