David Geary

So something was going on

even before the kids were entering preschool.

So there was variation in kids' knowledge even before then.

Right.

Yeah, it's a rich get richer situation.

And the reason is once you understand the quantities represented by number words and later numerals, then you begin to develop a network of knowledge.

And it's that network of number knowledge that gets you ready for first grade.

But you can't start until you have this conceptual insight.

And so early insight gives you more time to build up this knowledge base before you start school.

Right.

Yeah, it is something like that.

And so in a follow-up study, we focused on the two preschool years and we assess kids' number knowledge, counting skills, a variety of other things, standard math achievement.

We studied their parents' math achievement, reading achievement, IQ, home numeracy activities, math anxiety, variety of complexity of their talk to their kids when they're talking about quantitative things, a variety of other things.

We also looked at classroom factors like in-class behavior, what the kids are getting in schools in their classroom instruction.

In one of the studies, we focused on, okay, we know that some kids already have a head start before they even start preschool.

So they're like three and a half years old, three years, 10 months or so.

And other kids really don't know much of anything.

So there must be something going on at home that is fostering the development of some kids and not doing much for other kids.

And so we did a number of analyses and studies on that.

In one of those, we found that parents who were high in math anxiety had kids who were deficit in their number knowledge and basic counting skills and related competencies at the start of preschool.