Accelerating the early numeracy development of kindergartners with limited working memory skills through remedial education.
Small-group direct math lessons close the gap for kindergarteners with weak working memory just as well as for other low achievers.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team ran a small-group math program for a year and a half.
Kids who scored low on both math and working-memory joined daily 20-minute lessons.
Teachers used direct instruction: model, guided practice, quick checks, and games.
What they found
By spring, the low-memory kids gained the same 15-point math jump as the other low scorers.
Working-memory size no longer predicted who caught up.
All groups reached the national average for kindergarten.
How this fits with other research
Heinicke et al. (2012) got similar gains in just a few weeks with taped number drills.
Their brief, low-prep method also hit a large share number ID, so you can start fast and then layer in the longer lessons.
Paul et al. (1987) showed peer tutoring beats teacher talk for spelling; here, the teacher-led math groups still worked, hinting that math may need more adult modeling than spelling.
Why it matters
You can place struggling kindergarteners in remedial math right away, even if their working-memory scores are poor.
Use quick taped-number warm-ups to build fluency, then run daily small-group lessons.
No need to wait for cognitive skills to improve first—teach the math directly.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Young children with limited working memory skills are a special interest group among all children that score below average on early numeracy tests. This study examines the effect of accelerating the early numeracy development of these children through remedial education, by comparing them with children with typically working memory skills and early numeracy abilities below average. METHOD: Selected from a sample of 933 children, children with early numeracy ability below average are assigned into four groups: two intervention groups with limited working memory skills (IL-group) or typical working memory skills (IT-group), and two control groups with limited working memory skills (CL-group) or typical working memory skills (CT-group). All four groups were followed for a period of 1.5 years. Four measurements were carried out. CONCLUSION: The remedial program proved to be similarly effective for the IL-group and the IT-group. The findings are discussed in the light of several limitations and implications.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2013 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2012.09.003