Enhancing early mathematics abilities and working memory in preschool children at risk of dyscalculia using a numerical development and embodied cognition program
Abstract:
Preschool children at risk of dyscalculia can be ameliorated if an appropriate intervention is provided at an early age This research aimed to developan educational program for promoting numerical development and embodiedcognition for preschool children at risk of dyscalculia, and to assess its effectiveness One hundred kindergarten children participated in the study, randomly dividedintoexperimental and control groups of equal size Twenty training sessions were involved, with backward digit span and Corsi block tests administered in bothgroupsat the end of the sessions Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation), Chisquare tests, oneway ANOVA, dependent t-test, onewayMANCOVA, and effect size estimates Results showed that the developed program had an S-CVI/Ave valueof 9S The post-test response accuracy scores for mathematics ability of the experimental group were significantly greater than those of the control group at the 05 level of significance Response times in the experimental group were significantly lower (p<.01) with a large effect size (ηp2) = 0.37 Post-test response accuracy scores for working memory tasks (ie, backward digit span and Corsi-block) of the experimental group were significantly higher than those of the control group (p<.01), also withalarge effect size (ηp2) = 0.28