Enhancing early numeracy among young children

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate whether intervention on counting sequence (linear number board game) and cardinality (story book strategy) could enhance children’s number sense. Sixty-four Chinese kindergarteners (mean age = 5 years 2 months; 28 girls and 36 boys) who were studying at K2 were recruited from two kindergartens in Hong Kong. Separate repeated measures ANOVA were conducted among the children in the experimental group on each numerical task (verbal counting, one-to-one correspondence, and number line estimation) over three time points. The experimental group performed significantly better on all numerical tasks after the training. Moreover, separate repeated measures one-way ANCOVA showed significant difference between experimental and control group children on verbal counting and number line estimation tasks after the training. Kindergarten teachers and parents may make reference to the current intervention’s design to enhance children’s number sense.