Question
Why is it important to work on math skills in preschool?
Answer
It's important to work on math skills in early childhood settings, beyond calendar activities. We all know the value of math in our lives as adults, and that it is necessary for children to learn math skills. I was introduced to a study that opened my eyes and convinced me to re-evaluate my practices in an early childhood setting. Greg Duncan, an economist and an education professor at the University of California-Irvine, and colleagues did some research showing why early math matters (Duncan et al., 2007). This study examined six longitudinal sets of data and examined links between various school readiness indicators and later academic achievement. The results showed that the strongest predictor of school success was early school entry mathematics, followed by reading and attention skills. The study found that if young children had strong math skills before they even entered kindergarten, they saw it reflected in grades five, six, eight, ten, and later school successes. This study prompted me to re-evaluate my early childhood priorities and make math more of a priority.
Reference
Duncan, G.J., Claessens, A., Huston, A.C., Pagani, L.S., Engel, M., Sexton, H., ... Duckworth, K. (2007). School readiness and later achievement. Developmental Psychology, 43(6),1428-1446. doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.43.6.1428
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from a course entitled Early Mathematics for Pre-K, by Caitlin Frazier, MS.
