Research Findings: Shared-picture book reading can stimulate children's mathematical development. Evidence of learning-supportive characteristics in picture books is limited in this domain. A first step is systematically analyzing the occurrence of domain-specific features in publicly available picture books. We analyzed the occurrence of general…

The present study aimed to analyze the direction of the associations between repeating patterning, growing patterning, and numerical ability. Participants were 410 children who were annually assessed on their repeating patterning, growing patterning, and numerical ability, at ages 4, 5, and 6 years (i.e., spring 2017, 2018, and 2019). A…

This study evaluates the effectiveness of a dialogic reading picture book intervention on preschoolers' repeating patterning ability. Ninety-four children age 4 years 1 month to 6 years 8 months (M[subscript age] = 5 years 0 months) were randomly assigned to intervention (n = 46) or active control (n = 48) conditions. Well-trained university and…

Children's spontaneous focusing on Arabic number symbols (SFONS) has been identified as a relevant component of their early mathematical development. This study investigated whether SFONS is a separate construct from spontaneous focusing on numerosity (SFON) and examined whether it is uniquely related to numerical abilities and mathematics…

This longitudinal cross-lagged panel study investigated the development of the structure of young children's spontaneous number focusing tendencies and their longitudinal associations with numerical abilities and mathematics achievement over the course of a 3-year period, that is, in the second and third year of kindergarten and in first grade of…

Young children show large individual differences in their tendency to focus spontaneously on numerical aspects (e.g., numerosities or Arabic number symbols) of their everyday environment. The origins of these individual differences are unclear. Given the role of the home numeracy environment (HNE) in children's early mathematical development and…

Numerical competencies acquired in preschool are foundational and predictive for children's later mathematical development. It remains to be determined whether there are gender differences in these early numerical competencies which could explain the often-reported gender differences in later mathematics and STEM-related abilities. Using a…

Young children's early repeating patterning abilities are important foundations for their later mathematical development. Prior studies on young children's repeating patterning abilities have been conducted exclusively in developed countries differing in economic, societal, and educational characteristics from developing countries. In this study,…

Children's spontaneous focusing on Arabic number symbols (SFONS) has been identified as a relevant component of their early mathematical development. This study investigated whether SFONS is a separate construct from spontaneous focusing on numerosity (SFON) and examined whether it is uniquely related to numerical abilities and mathematics…

Background: Young children's spontaneous focusing on numerosity (SFON) as measured by experimental tasks is related to their mathematics achievement. This association is hypothetically explained by children's self-initiated practice in number recognition during everyday activities. As such, experimentally measured SFON should be associated with…

Children start preschool with large individual differences in their early numerical abilities. Little is known about the importance of heterogeneous patterns that exist within these individual differences. A person-centered analytic approach might be helpful to unravel these patterns and the cognitive and environmental factors that are associated…

This study investigated the relationship between kindergartners' Spontaneous Focusing on Numerosity (SFON) and their number-related utterances during numerical picture book reading. Forty-eight 4- to 5-year-olds were individually interviewed via a SFON Imitation Task and a numerical picture book reading activity. We expected differences in the…

This study aimed at (a) constructing a reliable and valid test to assess Ecuadorian 4-5-year olds' number and arithmetic skills; (b) providing empirical data on Ecuadorian 4-5-year olds' number and arithmetic skills; and (c) confronting these children's actual performances with the performances expected by national experts in this domain. We…

Numerical understanding and arithmetic skills are easier to acquire for whole numbers than fractions. The "integrated theory of numerical development" posits that, in addition to these differences, whole numbers and fractions also have important commonalities. In both, students need to learn how to interpret number symbols in terms of…

Studied the development of early numeracy in 207 5- to 7-year-old Flemish children compared with 299 Dutch peers. Results suggest that the Early Numeracy Test (J. van Luit and others, 1994) is moderately reliable and has construct validity. Flemish children lagged at the first assessment but caught up by the third in the middle of the first year…