The effects of brief visual and verbal exposures to numbers on children’s spontaneous focusing on numerosity

Abstract

Visual and verbal exposures to numbers were found to contribute to young children’s various abilities in mathematics. However, little is known about their contribution towards children’s spontaneous focusing on numerosity, which refers to children’s self-initiated attention towards numerosity in their surroundings. In the current study, 164 kindergarteners and one of their parents were invited to participate in a 5-minute parent-guided play. According to the assigned condition, they received both visual and verbal exposures to numbers, or either one type of exposures, or none of them, during the play. Before and after the play, children’s spontaneous tendency to focus on numerosity was measured. The results showed that children who only received visual exposure to numbers during the play showed higher SFON scores in the posttest as compared to children who only received verbal exposure to numbers, received both visual and verbal exposures to numbers, and did not receive any exposure to numbers. It suggests the importance of providing visual numerical stimulation to children in the context of play in increasing their awareness of numerical information in the environment.