When one size does not fit all: A latent profile analysis of low-income preschoolers' math skills.

On average, preschoolers from lower-income households perform worse on symbolic numerical tasks than preschoolers from middle- and upper-income households. Although many recent studies have developed and tested mathematics interventions for low-income preschoolers, the variability within this population has received less attention. The goal of the current study was to describe the variability in low-income children's math skills using a person-centered analysis.

Give yourself a hand: The role of gesture and working memory in preschoolers' numerical knowledge.

Hand gestures can be beneficial in math contexts to reduce the user's cognitive load by supporting domain-general abilities such as working memory. Although prior work has shown a strong relation between young children's early math performance and their general cognitive abilities, it is important to consider how children's working memory ability may relate to their use of spontaneous gesture as well as their math-specific abilities. The current study examined how preschool-aged children's gesture use and working memory relate to their performance on an age-appropriate math task.

Benefits of Playing Numerical Card Games on Head Start Children's Mathematical Skills.

Low-income preschoolers have lower average performance on measures of early numerical skills than middle-income children. The present study examined the effectiveness of numerical card games in improving children's numerical and executive functioning skills. Low-income preschoolers (N=76) were randomly assigned to play a numerical magnitude comparison card game, a numerical memory and matching card game, or a shape and color matching card game across four 15-minute sessions.

"Tap space number three": Promoting math talk during parent-child tablet play.

The prevalence of tablet computer use among young children has risen dramatically, as have educational apps claiming to promote school readiness skills such as mathematical knowledge. Parents can contribute to their preschoolers' math readiness through the math talk they provide during everyday interactions in traditional nonelectronic activities. However, it is unclear how parents talk about math during tablet play with their children, and how additional suggestions to focus on math might increase the frequency of this talk during tablet play.

Narrowing the Early Mathematics Gap: A Play-Based Intervention to Promote Low-Income Preschoolers' Number Skills.

Preschoolers from low-income households lag behind preschoolers from middle-income households on numerical skills that underlie later mathematics achievement. However, it is unknown whether these gaps exist on parallel measures of symbolic and non-symbolic numerical skills. Experiment 1 indicated preschoolers from low-income backgrounds were less accurate than peers from middle-income backgrounds on a measure of symbolic magnitude comparison, but they performed equivalently on a measure of non-symbolic magnitude comparison.