ABSTRACT

In this article, we analyze symbolic and non-symbolic numerical abilities of parents in order to understand whether these are predictors of children’s numerical skills, considering basic symbolic, non-symbolic, and formal math skills (i.e., written calculation). A battery of cognitive and math tasks was administered to a sample of 83 children with established formal school experience (i.e., fourth and fifth grade students), and to their mothers. Correlational and regression analyses were performed. The results evidenced significant relationships between children’s and mothers’ symbolic and math skills, but children’s symbolic comparison skills were the most significant predictor of their math skills. The study suggests that the intergenerational features of math skills play a significant role in children’s numerical development but that children’s math skills ultimately depend mainly on their own numerical processing. Within an educational perspective, the development of symbolic number skills in children is crucial and might allow the constraints of intergenerational transmission of math skills to be reduced.

摘要

在本文中，我们将考虑父母的基本符号，非符号和形式数学技能（即书面计算），以分析父母的符号和非符号数字能力，以了解它们是否是儿童数字技能的预测指标。对83名具有正规学校学习经验的儿童（即四年级和五年级学生）及其母亲进行了一系列认知和数学任务。进行了相关和回归分析。结果表明，儿童和母亲的符号和数学技能之间存在显着的关系，但是儿童的符号比较技能是他们数学技能的最重要预测指标。该研究表明，数学技能的代际特征在儿童的数字发展中起着重要作用，但儿童的数学技能最终主要取决于他们自己的数字处理。从教育的角度来看，儿童符号数字技能的发展至关重要，可以减少代际传授数学技能的限制。