Young children’s recognition of quantitative relations in mathematically unspecified settings

Abstract

<p id="yui_3_10_0_1_1389882673782_2390">Children have been found to be able to reason about quantitative relations, such as non- symbolic proportions, already by the age of 5 years. However, these studies utilize settings in which children were explicitly guided to notice the mathematical nature of the tasks. This study investigates children&rsquo;s spontaneous recognition of quantitative relations on mathe- matically unspecified settings. Participants were 86 Finnish-speaking children, ages 5&ndash;8. Two video-recorded tasks, in which participants were not guided to notice the mathe- matical aspects, were used. The tasks could be completed in a number of ways, including by matching quantitative relations, numerosity, or other aspects. Participants&rsquo; matching strategies were analyzed with regard to the most mathematically advanced level utilized. There were substantial differences in participants&rsquo; use of quantitative relations, numerosity and other aspects in their matching strategies. The results of this novel experimental set- ting show that investigating children&rsquo;s spontaneous recognition of quantitative relations provides novel insight into children&rsquo;s mathematical thinking and furthers the understand- ing of how children recognize and utilize mathematical aspects when not explicitly guided to do so.</p>