Joan Brasher says patterning and spatial activities like playing with blocks are simple yet powerful ways through which pre-schoolers develop early math skills.
A four-year-old lines up colourful blocks in a row: Red-red-green-red-red-green.
Her teacher encourages her to replicate the pattern using soft toys: Bear-bear-monkey-bear-bear-monkey.
Another child uses blocks to build a doorway, figuring out how to balance blocks on top of others.
This isn’t just play, the research suggests.
In a new study in Early Childhood Research Quarterly, researchers assessed 73 preschool children’s repeating patterning, spatial, general cognitive skills, and maths knowledge at the beginning of the pre-kindergarten year.
They re-assessed maths knowledge near the end of the school year.
“Because repeating patterning tasks do not require prior number knowledge, even preschool children can deduce underlying rules in the patterns,” the researchers found.
They found that patterning and spatial skills were related and were each unique predictors of children’s maths knowledge at the same time point and seven months later.
Professor of Psychology and Human Development at Vanderbilt University, Bethany Rittle-Johnson said because maths knowledge begins to develop at a young age it was imperative to identify foundational cognitive and academic skills that contribute to this development.
“This study provides further evidence that activities at home and school curricula should reflect the potential role of patterning and spatial skills for math knowledge development,” Professor Rittle-Johnson said.
So why do patterning activities promote later maths learning?
Study author, Erica Zippert says patterning skills involve deducing underlying rules in the sequence of objects, and may also promote some counting skills.
“Because repeating patterning tasks do not require prior number knowledge, even preschool children can deduce underlying rules in the patterns,” Ms Zippert says.
“Developing such skills with repeating patterns at a young age may support their noticing and use of patterns and rules in numbers as they acquire basic numeracy knowledge.”
Spatial skills are important too.
Solving maths problems often involves thinking about moving through space, so spatial skills may support maths problem solving.
“Both are important for preparing students for a workforce that demands more mathematical literacy than ever before,” Ms Zippert says.
“Preschool is the ideal time to lay the foundation for math learning, and best of all, math learning can occur through playful activities.”
*Joan Brasher is a public affairs officer at Vanderbilt University
This article first appeared at www.futurity.org
