title: Spontaneous focusing on numerosity as a domain-specific predictor of arithmetical skills.
abstract: The aim of this 2 year longitudinal study was to explore whether children's individual differences in spontaneous focusing on numerosity (SFON) in kindergarten predict arithmetical and reading skills 2 years later in school. Moreover, we investigated whether the positive relationship between SFON and mathematical skills is explained by children's individual differences in spontaneous focusing on a non-numerical aspect. The participants were 139 Finnish-speaking children. The results show that SFON tendency in kindergarten is a significant domain-specific predictor of arithmetical skills, but not reading skills, assessed at the end of Grade 2. In addition, the relationship between SFON and number sequence skills in kindergarten is not explained by children's individual differences in their focusing on a non-numerical aspect that is, spatial locations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Education, University of Turku, FIN-20014 Turku, Finland. minna.hannula@utu.fi
authors.forename: Minna M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Hannula
authors.forename: Janne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lepola
authors.forename: Erno
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lehtinen
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D010700:Phonetics; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011932:Reading; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis