A Study On The Relationship Between Number Concept Development And Spatial Ability In Children Aged 4-5 Years

The concept of number is an important content in early mathematics education.It is necessary to describe the influence mechanism of the development of number concept comprehensively to improve the quality of mathematics education.As one of the domain-general cognitive abilities,the relationship between spatial abilities and the development of number concepts has attracted attention,but the study of preschool children is insufficient.Therefore,this study explores the relationship between spatial ability and number concept of 4-5-year-old children from a cross-sectional study,and uses a longitudinal study to understand the impact of spatial perception intervention on spatial ability and number concept development.These two studies complementary each other,in order to fully describe relationship between spatial ability and the development of the concept of number.This study is divided into two sub-studies.Study 1 selected 121 children aged 4-5 in different kindergartens in Shanghai to form two age groups.Using the Test of Early Math Ability-?(TEMA-?),Spatial Relationships Subtest of Test of Visual Perceptual Skills-4(TVPS-4),the block pattern test of The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence(WPPSI-III)measures the performance of number concept,spatial perception and spatial visualization in children,and analyzes the correlation and predictability of spatial abilities and number concept performance.In study 2,select 30 children aged 4 to 5,15 in the experimental group and 15 in the control group.Using the pretest-posttest control group design of the quasiexperimentation design,the children of the experimental group were subjected to a spatial perception intervention for 7 weeks,including individualized game 2-3 times a week,and collective teaching was performed once a week from the third week of the intervention.The control group performed daily class activities.Two tests were performed before and after the intervention and the data were analyzed to verify the intervention effect.The results showed that:(1)Children's spatial ability has been developed at the age of 4,and has the main effect of age and kindergarten grade.The spatial ability of children in the age group of 5 and the demonstration kindergarten is better.Gender,age and grade also have interaction effect in spatial ability.The concept of the number of children aged 4-5 varies from dimension to dimension and has the main effects of age and kindergarten grade.(2)Spatial ability of 4-5 year old children can predict number concept performance.Spatial perception can better predict the dimension related to arithmetic,and informal arithmetic plays a mediator.Spatial visualization can better predict counting,comparison,number identification and writing,and counting plays a mediator.But overall spatial perception is more predictive.There is an age difference in the predictability of spatial ability.The prediction of the number concept of children in the 4-year old group was stronger than that in the 5-year old group,and the prediction of spatial perception increased with age.(3)Spatial perception intervention improved children's spatial perception and spatial visualization ability,and the improvement effect of children in the low spatial ability group was more significant.(4)Spatial perception intervention has a transfer effect on children's number concept development,which improves the whole number concept,as well as the performance of multiple subdimensions such as counting,comparison and informal number concept.