Young Mathematicians

Challenge

All children need a strong foundation of mathematics skills and knowledge to prepare them for success in school, careers, and life. Yet too many children do not have meaningful opportunities to build key early math skills, either at home or in preschool settings.

EDC’s Young Mathematicians (YM) program helps teachers and families engage children in high-quality mathematics learning through playful learning experiences, games, and problem-solving stories. The YM approach ignites children’s curiosity and love for mathematics and promotes their persistence, problem-solving, and puzzling skills. Research on YM shows that it successfully supports children’s learning. Children who play YM math games more frequently have higher math scores by the end of their school year. Families and teachers gain confidence in supporting children’s math learning.

Key Activities

YM materials are available nationwide through New Path Learning and the YM website, and the program is being implemented in our Young Mathematicians in Worcester and Family Math Learning Community in York, PA projects; as well as multiple Head Start programs in the Northeast. In the first phase of YM, EDC researchers and professional developers conducted the following activities:

In partnership with eight Head Start programs across New England, carefully developed and tested the YM program over a period of five years
Using games as a foundation for learning, developed a classroom intervention with input from over 100 Head Start teachers
Developed a family engagement professional learning component that supports teachers in sharing mathematics-related activities with families that promote number talk at home
Addressed teacher, family, and child attitudes toward mathematics so that all children see themselves as mathematics learners
Identified effective ways to intentionally incorporate mathematics games into classroom and family routines
Conducted an experimental randomized controlled trial (RCT) field study (in 2016–2017) of the cross-context early mathematics intervention engaging teachers, families, and children from 66 Head Start preschool classrooms

Impact

The projects have directly reached 3,000 preschoolers and 150 teachers in Head Start Centers, as well as over 4,000 pre-K students and kindergarteners and 175 teachers in public schools in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York.
The team shared findings in numerous publications, including Teaching Young Children (e.g., “Now Read This! Pattern Books,” “Pattern Block Puzzles,” “Fun, Easy Ways to Play with Math at Home,” “Encouraging Persistence and Positive Attitudes toward Math,” “Explore Numbers and Counting with Dot Cards and Finger Games”); the Development and Research in Early Math Education blog (“Math Games to Excite Young Minds”); and Issues & Insights (“The Simple Fun of Math Games”).
The intervention (classroom + family math) had a statistically significant effect on Head Start preschoolers’ mathematics learning, teachers’ instructional practice, and families’ attitudes toward mathematics.
The intervention was particularly effective for older preschoolers’ mathematics learning.
Findings from this study are helping preschool teachers identify simple but powerful ways to enhance mathematics instruction. They are also relevant to policymakers looking to better prepare students for mathematics success in grades K–12.
The team has launched a YouTube channel with brief engaging videos that explain some of the games: https://www.youtube.com/@youngmathematiciansedc.
The project website, ym.edc.org, has over 60,000 active users who access the games and materials.