Number line development of Chilean children from preschool to the end of kindergarten

Chang Xu; Sabrina Di Lonardo Burr; Heather Douglas; María Inés Susperreguy; Jo-Anne LeFevre

doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105144

Number line development of Chilean children from preschool to the end of kindergarten

Chang Xu^*, Sabrina Di Lonardo Burr, Heather Douglas, María Inés Susperreguy, Jo-Anne LeFevre

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

24 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Children's performance on number line tasks reflects their developing number system knowledge. Before 5 years of age, most children perform poorly on even the simplest number lines (i.e., 0–10). Our goal was to understand how number line skills develop before formal schooling. Chilean preschoolers attempted a 0–10 number line task three times over 2 years: at the beginning of pre-kindergarten (M = 4:7 [years;months]; Time 1), at the end of pre-kindergarten (M = 5:0; Time 2), and at the end of kindergarten (M = 5:10; Time 3). We used latent class analysis to group children according to their patterns of performance across number targets. At Time 1, 86% of children had error patterns indicating that they randomly placed estimates on the line. At Time 2, 56% of children continued to respond randomly. At Time 3, 56% of children showed competent performance across the number line, 23% were accurate only near the endpoints, and 21% were accurate only for low target numbers near the origin. Latent transition analyses showed that the transition from less to more proficient estimation classes was predicted by children's number identification skills. Thus, number line performance changed dramatically from 4 to 6 years of age as children began to develop the cognitive and numerical skills necessary to accurately estimate numbers on a number line.

Original language	English
Article number	105144
Journal	Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
Volume	208
Early online date	13 Apr 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105144
Publication status	Published - Aug 2021
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Support for this research was provided by the Chilean National Fund of Scientific and Technology Development (ANID/CONICYT FONDECYT) through Grants FONDECYT Iniciación 11140899 and FONDECYT Regular 1180675 to María Inés Susperreguy. We express our sincere gratitude to the schools, teachers, and children who participated in the study. We are also grateful to the research assistants who contributed to data collection and to Andrea Howard for suggestions on the statistical analyses. Support for data analysis and writing was also provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada through an Insight Grant to J. LeFevre, E. Maloney, H. Osana, and S. Skwarchuk and by Ph.D. scholarships to H. Douglas and S. Burr.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Inc.

Keywords

Chile
Early numeracy
Latent class analysis
Mathematical cognition
Number line
Preschool children

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Developmental and Educational Psychology

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Number line development of Chilean children from preschool to the end of kindergarten
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Cite this

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title = "Number line development of Chilean children from preschool to the end of kindergarten",

abstract = "Children's performance on number line tasks reflects their developing number system knowledge. Before 5 years of age, most children perform poorly on even the simplest number lines (i.e., 0–10). Our goal was to understand how number line skills develop before formal schooling. Chilean preschoolers attempted a 0–10 number line task three times over 2 years: at the beginning of pre-kindergarten (M = 4:7 [years;months]; Time 1), at the end of pre-kindergarten (M = 5:0; Time 2), and at the end of kindergarten (M = 5:10; Time 3). We used latent class analysis to group children according to their patterns of performance across number targets. At Time 1, 86% of children had error patterns indicating that they randomly placed estimates on the line. At Time 2, 56% of children continued to respond randomly. At Time 3, 56% of children showed competent performance across the number line, 23% were accurate only near the endpoints, and 21% were accurate only for low target numbers near the origin. Latent transition analyses showed that the transition from less to more proficient estimation classes was predicted by children's number identification skills. Thus, number line performance changed dramatically from 4 to 6 years of age as children began to develop the cognitive and numerical skills necessary to accurately estimate numbers on a number line.",

keywords = "Chile, Early numeracy, Latent class analysis, Mathematical cognition, Number line, Preschool children",

author = "Chang Xu and Burr, {Sabrina Di Lonardo} and Heather Douglas and Susperreguy, {Mar{\'i}a In{\'e}s} and Jo-Anne LeFevre",

note = "Funding Information: Support for this research was provided by the Chilean National Fund of Scientific and Technology Development (ANID/CONICYT FONDECYT) through Grants FONDECYT Iniciaci{\'o}n 11140899 and FONDECYT Regular 1180675 to Mar{\'i}a In{\'e}s Susperreguy. We express our sincere gratitude to the schools, teachers, and children who participated in the study. We are also grateful to the research assistants who contributed to data collection and to Andrea Howard for suggestions on the statistical analyses. Support for data analysis and writing was also provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada through an Insight Grant to J. LeFevre, E. Maloney, H. Osana, and S. Skwarchuk and by Ph.D. scholarships to H. Douglas and S. Burr. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 Elsevier Inc.",

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doi = "10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105144",

language = "English",

volume = "208",

journal = "Journal of Experimental Child Psychology",

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AU - Susperreguy, María Inés

AU - LeFevre, Jo-Anne

N1 - Funding Information: Support for this research was provided by the Chilean National Fund of Scientific and Technology Development (ANID/CONICYT FONDECYT) through Grants FONDECYT Iniciación 11140899 and FONDECYT Regular 1180675 to María Inés Susperreguy. We express our sincere gratitude to the schools, teachers, and children who participated in the study. We are also grateful to the research assistants who contributed to data collection and to Andrea Howard for suggestions on the statistical analyses. Support for data analysis and writing was also provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada through an Insight Grant to J. LeFevre, E. Maloney, H. Osana, and S. Skwarchuk and by Ph.D. scholarships to H. Douglas and S. Burr. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 Elsevier Inc.

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N2 - Children's performance on number line tasks reflects their developing number system knowledge. Before 5 years of age, most children perform poorly on even the simplest number lines (i.e., 0–10). Our goal was to understand how number line skills develop before formal schooling. Chilean preschoolers attempted a 0–10 number line task three times over 2 years: at the beginning of pre-kindergarten (M = 4:7 [years;months]; Time 1), at the end of pre-kindergarten (M = 5:0; Time 2), and at the end of kindergarten (M = 5:10; Time 3). We used latent class analysis to group children according to their patterns of performance across number targets. At Time 1, 86% of children had error patterns indicating that they randomly placed estimates on the line. At Time 2, 56% of children continued to respond randomly. At Time 3, 56% of children showed competent performance across the number line, 23% were accurate only near the endpoints, and 21% were accurate only for low target numbers near the origin. Latent transition analyses showed that the transition from less to more proficient estimation classes was predicted by children's number identification skills. Thus, number line performance changed dramatically from 4 to 6 years of age as children began to develop the cognitive and numerical skills necessary to accurately estimate numbers on a number line.

AB - Children's performance on number line tasks reflects their developing number system knowledge. Before 5 years of age, most children perform poorly on even the simplest number lines (i.e., 0–10). Our goal was to understand how number line skills develop before formal schooling. Chilean preschoolers attempted a 0–10 number line task three times over 2 years: at the beginning of pre-kindergarten (M = 4:7 [years;months]; Time 1), at the end of pre-kindergarten (M = 5:0; Time 2), and at the end of kindergarten (M = 5:10; Time 3). We used latent class analysis to group children according to their patterns of performance across number targets. At Time 1, 86% of children had error patterns indicating that they randomly placed estimates on the line. At Time 2, 56% of children continued to respond randomly. At Time 3, 56% of children showed competent performance across the number line, 23% were accurate only near the endpoints, and 21% were accurate only for low target numbers near the origin. Latent transition analyses showed that the transition from less to more proficient estimation classes was predicted by children's number identification skills. Thus, number line performance changed dramatically from 4 to 6 years of age as children began to develop the cognitive and numerical skills necessary to accurately estimate numbers on a number line.

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KW - Early numeracy

KW - Latent class analysis

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KW - Number line

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SN - 0022-0965

VL - 208

JO - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

JF - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

M1 - 105144

ER -

Number line development of Chilean children from preschool to the end of kindergarten

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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