Spontaneous focusing on Arabic number symbols and its association with early mathematical competencies

Abstract Many studies have investigated the association between children’s spontaneous attention to number and their early mathematical abilities. This work has presented number in a non-symbolic format by exclusively using numerosities as their stimuli. Therefore, little is known about children’s spontaneous attention for Arabic number symbols. We aimed to address this gap by exploring, for the first time, whether we can observe individual differences in young children’s tendency to spontaneously focus their attention on Arabic number symbols (SFONS) using a newly developed Picture task. We investigated SFONS and its association with spontaneous focusing on numerosity (SFON), numerical abilities, and teacher ratings of mathematical competence in the three years of Flemish kindergarten. One hundred and eleven kindergartners (2 years 4 months – 6 years 2 months of age) completed a battery of tasks to measure their SFONS and SFON, as well as a range of numerical abilities (i.e., Arabic numeral identification, verbal counting, and counting objects). Kindergarten teachers were asked to rate their children’s mathematical competence on a 4-point Likert scale. Findings revealed that children in the three kindergarten years under study largely differed in their tendency to spontaneously attend to Arabic number symbols in the pictures they had to describe. We also observed differences in the levels of SFONS and SFON between the three kindergarten years. Although SFONS and SFON were not strongly associated in the three kindergarten years, significant associations were found between children’s SFONS and their numerical abilities in kindergarten year 1 and 2, and teacher ratings of their mathematical competence in kindergarten year 3. Together, these results suggest that SFONS is a relevant component of children’s early mathematical development.

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