Kindergartners' Spontaneous Focusing on Numerosity in Relation to Their Number-Related Utterances During Numerical Picture Book Reading

: Sanne Rathé, Joke Torbeyns, Minna M. Hannula-Sormunen, Lieven Verschaffel

Publisher: ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD

: 2016

: Mathematical Thinking and Learning

: MATHEMATICAL THINKING AND LEARNING

: MATH THINK LEARN

: 18

: 2

: 125

: 141

: 17

: 1098-6065

: 1532-7833

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10986065.2016.1148531

This study investigated the relationship between kindergartners' Spontaneous Focusing on Numerosity (SFON) and their number-related utterances during numerical picture book reading. Forty-eight 4- to 5-year-olds were individually interviewed via a SFON Imitation Task and a numerical picture book reading activity. We expected differences in the frequency of number-related utterances during picture book reading between children with a higher SFON score, providing more number-related utterances, and children with a lower SFON score. Our results showed large inter-individual differences in both kindergartners' SFON and the frequency of their number-related utterances during picture book reading, yet SFON was not related to the frequency of number-related utterances. This unexpected result is discussed in terms of its scientific, methodological, and educational implications.