Enhancing children’s number sense through shared book reading

Abstract

Number sense is a cornerstone for preschoolers to achieve academic achievement in Mathematics. Number sense is defined as counting, number knowledge and early arithmetic concepts in the present study. Shared book reading is a popular choice among educators and parents to stimulate preschoolers’ mathematical concepts and skills. The present study aimed to examine the effectiveness of shared book reading intervention in children’s number sense, including counting, number knowledge and early arithmetic concepts. Seventy Cantonese-speaking children (mean age= 4.05) were recruited from three preschools. They were assigned to either the experimental group (who participated in a series of number sense-based shared book reading sessions with a focus on early arithmetic concepts) or control group (who also participated in the regular shared book reading sessions but without touching on any arithmetic concepts). One-way Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) showed that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in the early arithmetic concepts tasks after the intervention. Further analyses suggested that only the experimental group, but not the control group, showed a significant improvement in their early arithmetic concepts after receiving the intervention. Educators and parents are advised to help children acquire early arithmetic concepts through shared book reading.