How do individual differences in children's brain mechanism for number abilities relate to gains during first grade mathematics, and how might first grade instruction drive changes in such brain mechanisms? These questions are addressed using a battery of brain imaging measures including brain structure (MRI,DTI), bloodflow changes (fMRI), and electrical responses (ERP). Pre-post brain measures track changes over the course of a school year within two groups segregated by a "school's cutoff date" into young first graders and old kindergarteners. This group contrast allows the impact of first grade instruction to be differentiated from maturation and school attendance.
The project investigated the impact of schooling experiences on brain and behavioral measures of basic number skills that form the foundation of early mathematical competence in school. The influence of schooling was measured using a "natural experiment" called school cutoff, in which children on either side of the school entry cutoff date are compared on growth of a series of number skills. An additional aim of the project was to develop tests of number skills that could be utilized with children from Kindergarten to third grade and also be adapted for use in fMRI experiments. Findings from the project revealed that early schooling had a direct and unique impact on growth of a number of important early number skils (number discrimination, fluency of number naming). Particularly in KIndergarten, children exposed to schooling early made significantly more progress than children exposed later. Findings from the fMRI tasks corroborated the behavioral results in showing corresponding chages with schooling in brain araes invlolved in mathematical processing. Moreover, the battery of tests developed for the study were demonstrated to be vaild , sensitive measures of early math skills, and could be utilized successfully with children from KIndergarten to third grade. Overall the study revealed the crucial role of early schooling in development of basic number skills. The findings hold great relevance for broader impacts in pointing to classroom experiences that could enhance early math skills in young children.
