2018_EJRNL_PP_CAROLINE_BYRD_1.pdf
Terbatas Dwi Ary Fuziastuti
» ITB
Terbatas Dwi Ary Fuziastuti
» ITB
Understanding of mathematical language is critical for numeracy
skill development. However, prior research has focused exclusively
on relations between mathematical language and numeracy skills,
broadly measured. Thus, the aim of the current study was to
explore more targeted relations between preschoolers’ mathematical
language and specific numeracy skills (e.g., cardinality,
numeral comparison). The participants were 124 preschoolers
aged 3.52 to 6.03 years (M = 4.78 years, SD = 0.53). Children were
assessed on a battery of early numeracy skills and mathematical
language as well as expressive vocabulary. Mixed-effects regression
models were conducted, with school as a random effect and
age, gender, and parental education as fixed effects covariates.
Results indicated that mathematical language was significantly
related to most numeracy skills, including verbal counting, oneto-
one correspondence, numeral identification, cardinality, comparisons
of sets and/or numerals, ordering numerals, and story
problems. As hypothesized, mathematical language was not significantly
related to either subitizing or formal addition because these
skills are independent of general language ability. Importantly,
mathematical language was generally more proximal to each of
these numeracy skills than was general language. These results
provide direction for future research, in particular for the development
of more precise measures to identify children at risk for