By integrating rudimentary math skills into play, mothers and other caregivers can help prepare children for math instruction during kindergarten and elementary school. Researchers from Boston College have published a study showing that children whose mothers added basic math and counting questions to play time out-performed other students on pre-school and first grade math assessments.
Would you like your toddler to become a math wizard? Try these helpful hints during playtime!
Key math concepts are essential for learning mathematics.
The researchers identified three math concepts that were the keys to improving later math abilities: 1) naming numbers; 2) counting by numbers; and 3) using counting words to label groups of objects. This research builds on prior studies that showed that math assessment performance in early elementary school grade-levels is correlated with higher incomes as adults.
And it appears the benefits stretch well beyond elementary school: Earlier research revealed that kids with high math skills when they start kindergarten not only perform better in school but go on to earn higher incomes.
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
Key takeaways
- Inserting educational questions into a child’s playtime is a good way to help them learn.
- Toddlers whose parents asked them math questions during play often did better during their first two years of school.
- In fact, children who perform better in math in their early years of school often make higher incomes once they graduate from school.
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