An investment in early childhood education pays off when the benefits continue into adulthood. Although many recent preschool interventions have had positive, short-term effects on young children's language, literacy, mathematics, executive function, and social-emotional development, studies show that related gains in cognitive and academic skills…

This article promotes the use of mathematically appropriate, engaging and challenging tasks to support learning that is worthwhile. The authors share insights from a three-lesson design experiment and the three tasks along with the results from their implementation are explored.