Abstract
Relational language is thought to influence mathematical skills. This study examines the association between relational language and number relation skills—knowledge of cardinal, ordinal, and spatial principles—among 104 U.S. kindergartners (5.9 years; 44% boys; 37% White, 25% Black, 14% Asian, 24% other) in the 2017–2018 academic year. Controlling for general verbal knowledge, executive function, and counting and number identification skills, relational language predicted later number relation skills, specifically number line estimation, β =.30. Relational language did not differentially predict number line estimation performance in children with low or high number relation skills, likely due to the restricted ranges of data within subgroups. Number relation skills, specifically number line estimation and number ordering, may be a pathway between relational language and mathematical skills.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 956-972 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| Journal | Child development |
| Volume | 93 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 1 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This research was supported by a Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship from the University of Minnesota, a Dissertation Funding Award from the Society for Research in Child Development Student and Early Career Council, and a Herb Pick Applied Developmental Psychology Seed Grant from the Institute of Child Development, all to J. Chan. Preparation for this work was also supported by the Heising‐Simons Foundation Grant #2014‐156, as part of the Development and Research in Early Mathematics Education (DREME) Network awarded to M. Mazzocco that supported the M. Mazzocco and J. Chan, and NSF Award #1644748 awarded to M. Mazzocco that supported all three authors. The research was completed as partial fulfillment of the first author’s doctoral dissertation requirement. The first author thanks the dissertation committee members, Maria Sera, Sashank Varma, and Philip Zelazo, and a special thanks to the advisor, Michèle Mazzocco, for their guidance. The authors thank the teachers, staff, children, and families for participating in this research, and members of the Mazzocco Math and Numeracy Lab for their support of this project.
Funding Information:
This research was supported by a Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship from the University of Minnesota, a Dissertation Funding Award from the Society for Research in Child Development Student and Early Career Council, and a Herb Pick Applied Developmental Psychology Seed Grant from the Institute of Child Development, all to J. Chan. Preparation for this work was also supported by the Heising-Simons Foundation Grant #2014-156, as part of the Development and Research in Early Mathematics Education (DREME) Network awarded to M. Mazzocco that supported the M. Mazzocco and J. Chan, and NSF Award #1644748 awarded to M. Mazzocco that supported all three authors. The research was completed as partial fulfillment of the first author’s doctoral dissertation requirement. The first author thanks the dissertation committee members, Maria Sera, Sashank Varma, and Philip Zelazo, and a special thanks to the advisor, Michèle Mazzocco, for their guidance. The authors thank the teachers, staff, children, and families for participating in this research, and members of the Mazzocco Math and Numeracy Lab for their support of this project.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. Child Development © 2022 Society for Research in Child Development
PubMed: MeSH publication types
- Journal Article
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
- Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.