title: Development of early numerical abilities of Spanish-speaking Mexican preschoolers: A new assessment tool.
abstract: This article presents a tool for assessing the early numerical abilities of Spanish-speaking Mexican preschoolers. The Numerical Abilities Test, from the Evaluación Neuropsicológica Infantil-Preescolar (ENI-P), evaluates four core abilities of number development: magnitude comparison, counting, subitizing, and basic calculation. We evaluated 307 Spanish-speaking Mexican children aged 2 years 6 months to 4 years 11 months. Appropriate internal consistency and test-retest reliability were demonstrated. We also investigated the effect of age, children's school attendance, maternal education, and sex on children's numerical scores. The results showed that the four subtests captured development across ages. Critically, maternal education had an impact on children's performance in three out of the four subtests, but there was no effect associated with children's school attendance or sex. These results suggest that the Numerical Abilities Test is a reliable instrument for Spanish-speaking preschoolers. We discuss the implications of our outcomes for numerical development.
authors.affiliation: a Departamento de Neurociencias, CUCS , Universidad de Guadalajara, Guadalajara , Jalisco , Mexico.
authors.forename: Beatriz
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Beltrán-Navarro
authors.affiliation: b Instituto de Neurociencias, CUCBA , Universidad de Guadalajara , Guadalajara , Jalisco , Mexico.
authors.forename: Roberto A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Abreu-Mendoza
authors.affiliation: b Instituto de Neurociencias, CUCBA , Universidad de Guadalajara , Guadalajara , Jalisco , Mexico.
authors.forename: Esmeralda
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Matute
authors.affiliation: c Department of Psychology , Florida Atlantic University , Boca Raton , Florida , USA.
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rosselli
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D008800:Mexico; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014175:Translating
keywords: Assessment tool; SES; early numerical abilities; preschoolers; psychometrics