Early Development of Number Skills
This research aims at charting, longitudinally, numerical development and delineating the early factors producing both later success and failure in school mathematics. In previous studies we introduced a theoretically and methodologically new concept to the scientific literature of children’s early mathematical development: Spontaneous FOcusing on Numerosity (SFON).
The studies showed that to some children, the world may appear to be full of numerosities and opportunities for practicing early mathematical skills, whilst others might focus on other features in the environment and involve themselves much less with pre-mathematical ideas. Thus the differences in the extent to which children focus on numerosity and utilise their number recognition skills in their everyday surroundings explain the differences in the development of the emergence in early mathematical skills.
In the study we develop intervention methods to be used in daycare centers and at schools. In additional to behavioral measures we use brain imaging methods such as fMRI and EEG to study numerical processing.
Studies
- Development of numerical focusing tendencies
- Linking early SFON tendency and numerical skills to mathematical skills at school age
- Brain imaging study of individual differences in numerical processing
- Role of memory in processing pictures
- Intervention studies on early mathematical skills of at-risk children
- Longitudinal study of prematurely born children’s early numerical development (PIPARI-study)
- Pre-attentional components of number processing
Research Funding
- (2008-2011) DEMAS project, Academy of Finland
- (2006-2009) Postdoctoral Researcher Project funding, Academy of Finland
- (2010-2015) Academy Professor funding "Origin and extensions of number concept in children and adolescents: A developmental and educational approach"
Research Leaders
Academy Professor Erno Lehtinen and Adjunct Professor Minna M. Hannula-Sormunen
Research Team
Janne Lepola, Academy Research Fellow
Aino Mattinen, Post-doc Researcher, Universities of Turku and Jyväskylä
Pekka Räsänen, Senior Researcher, University of Jyväskylä
Jake McMullen, Doctoral Student
Petriina Munck, Doctoral Student
Timo Tuovinen, Research Assistant
Research Collaborators
Professor Daniel Ansari, University of Western Ontario
Professor Heikki Hämäläinen, University of Turku
Professor Elizabeth Spelke, Harvard University
Doctor Roland Grabner, ETH Zurich
Professor Ference Marton, University of Gothenburg
Post-doc Researcher Gavin Price, University of Western Ontario
Professor Bruce McCandliss, Cornell University
Adjunct professor Timo Ruusuvirta, University of Turku
Doctor Karin Kucian, University Children's Hospital Zurich
Professor Lieven Verschaffel, University of Leuven