Understanding mathematical development in preschool children: The association between mathematical language and mathematical abilities

Children’s understanding of mathematical language has been put forward as an important correlate their abilities. To date, no study disentangled the precise roles different types language, such quantitative (e.g., more) or spatial above) in preschool children. The existing studies have limited assessment mathematics to children’s numerical competencies, but they did not consider broader aspects mathematics, geometry and measurement. We aimed address these two gaps by assessing 75 preschool-aged (Mage = 4 years 10 months) language. investigated how both correlated with performance domains namely Results showed that, contrast our expectations, were equally When we additionally controlled for general only was related abilities, specifically competencies geometry. An exploratory path analysis further revealed that there a strong association between skills all three domains. In summary, children's more strongly success than skills.