ABSTRACT

Children’s spontaneous focusing on Arabic number symbols (SFONS) has been identified as a relevant component of their early mathematical development. This study investigated whether SFONS is a separate construct from spontaneous focusing on numerosity (SFON) and examined whether it is uniquely related to numerical abilities and mathematics achievement. Participants were 159 kindergartners (4-5-year-olds) who completed measures of SFONS, SFON, numerical abilities, mathematics achievement, spatial ability, and language ability. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that a two-factor model representing a separate SFONS and SFON factor best fitted the data, indicating that SFONS is separate from SFON. Correlation and regression analyses showed that SFONS was associated with numerical abilities and mathematics achievement. These associations – except for verbal counting – remained after controlling for age, parental education, spatial ability, language ability, and SFON. These findings suggest that SFONS is a unique component of early mathematical development that deserves attention in early mathematics education.

摘要

儿童对阿拉伯数字符号（SFONS）的自发关注已被确定为他们早期数学发展的重要组成部分。这项研究调查了SFONS是否是独立于自然数（SFON）的独立构造，并研究了它是否与数字能力和数学成就具有独特的关系。参加者有159名（4-5岁的）幼儿园学生，他们完成了SFONS，SFON，数字能力，数学成就，空间能力和语言能力的测量。验证性因素分析显示，分别代表SFONS和SFON因子的两因素模型最适合该数据，表明SFONS与SFON是分开的。相关和回归分析表明，SFONS与数字能力和数学成绩相关。在控制了年龄，父母教育，空间能力，语言能力和SFON之后，这些关联（口头计数除外）仍然存在。这些发现表明，SFONS是早期数学发展的独特组成部分，在早期数学教育中值得关注。