TITLE:
Early Predictors for Basic Numerical and Magnitude Competencies in Preschool Children—Are They the Same or Different regarding Specific Subgroups?
AUTHORS:
Silvia Pixner, Christina Kraut, Verena Dresen
KEYWORDS:
Early Predictors, Arithmetic Competencies, Mathematical Skills, Children, Early Arithmetic Development, Phonological Awareness, Counting Abilities, Visual-Spatial Perception
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.8 No.2,
January
23,
2017
ABSTRACT: Basic numeric competencies in early childhood are found to be good predictors for later mathematical achievement. Therefore, it is of broad interest how specific predictors in early childhood, which are held responsible for a better arithmetic development later on, can be found. Our study aims to conduct more information to this topic and hence to extract factors that can already predict the basic numerical and magnitude competencies in preschool. Based on a sample of 188 preschoolers from 26 different kindergartens throughout Tyrol, we wanted to prove whether the factors of phonological awareness, counting abilities, fine motor skills, visual-spatial perception, motoric coordination as well as the children’s age, their gender or handedness may be considered as possible predictors for later mathematic skills. Our data analysis revealed that only phonological awareness, counting abilities and children’s visual-spatial perception pose significant predictors specifically for the basic numerical and magnitude competencies in preschoolers. In a second step, we tested whether these predictors are the same or different regarding two subgroups from our sample including children with different requirements. We found that children with different skills (concerning phonological awareness) might choose different strategies to acquire new competencies; therefore, different predictors are relevant for basic numerical and magnitude competencies. Regarding over all arithmetic competencies it is equal which predictor leads to basic numerical and magnitude competencies, children’s performance did not differ.