Numerical Development in Children

About This Grant

Children learn about numbers through their senses and by learning to count before starting school. Learning about numbers is critically important as a foundation for future achievement in the mathematics classroom. Most research on early number learning focuses on visual learning, even though children interact with objects and numbers through vision, touch, and sound. In this project, researchers will investigate how children learn about numbers through different senses, including in situations when they cannot use visual cues. The research team will work with children who have differing amounts of visual experience (e.g., blindness or visual impairments) and use research methods that focus on other senses including touch. Research aims include (a) investigating non-visual strategies for learning how to count and (b) exploring how children learn to perceive and compare different amounts of things. This work will help deepen and broaden current scholarship on early number learning. In addition, research outcomes will benefit those who can and cannot see. The results from this study may inform mathematics instructional practices for young children. Researchers in this project will work with children having differing levels of visual acuity. Mathematics skills are correlated in development with a range of visual abilities; however, numerical information can also be accessed through non-visual senses like hearing and touch. Some children are born unable to see, yet they learn about numbers. The broad purpose of this project is to understand the precise role that vision plays in numerical development. One research aim is to learn how those children discriminate and estimate perceptual arrays. A second aim is to explore how they learn counting skills. The research team will explore whether children, who learn haptically, pass through the same stages as children who learn to count visually. In study one, over 100 children ages 2 to 12 will be presented with haptic stimuli (e.g., small groups of raised bumps on a flat surface), and asked to estimate how many bumps they perceive. They will complete various validated tasks such as Give-N, highest count, and haptic working memory. In addition, researchers will administer a version of the Test of Early Mathematics Ability 3. In a second study, the research team will investigate the role of vision in the development of counting skills using set matching tasks for which validity has been gathered from prior studies. For study two, data from over 100 children ages 3-12 will be collected. Fifty additional children ages 3-12 will be added to study two with an intent to explore their counting abilities with large sets as part of the Give-N task. Only those children who show proficiency with small sets will be eligible for the large set study. In study three, 100 children ages 2-7 will be administered four tasks from study one in addition to the Non-Verbal, Same-Different task. Finally, in study four, 60 children ages 2-7 will complete the Give-N and Highest Count tasks. Children from the United States and India will participate. Tasks will be adapted to focus on counting violations as well as anticipating their outcomes on the tasks. Data from the studies will be analyzed quantitatively using multiple regression techniques that involve multiple covariates. One benefit from this project is a deeper understanding of how young children learn to count with senses besides vision. There is potential for research results to translate to mathematics instruction and learning contexts for all learners. This project is supported by NSF's EDU Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.