A pilot home-based early intervention study to improve the mathematical skills of young children

Children who come from low socioeconomic backgrounds and children with learning disabilities are found to be at risk for future failure in mathematics. Even though the mathematics scores increases over time the achievement gap remains between the various ethnic and socioeconomic groups. One way to prevent this failure is to identify the students who are at risk and provide them with effective early intervention. This study reports the results of a pilot early mathematics intervention study focusing on two Turkish families in the US. In this single-subject research, a multiple probe technique was used in order to examine the impact of the SRA DLM Math Pre-K CD-ROM in combination with parent scaffolding on young children’s number sense skills. Two parent-child dyads participated in this study. Two semi-structured interviews were conducted with the parents before and after the intervention. The child participants received 3 Mathematical Curriculum Based Measure (CBM) every week to monitor their progress. Building Blocks Assessment was used to identify whether children were able to generalize the number sense skills developed during work sessions in different settings. This measure was administered both before and after the intervention.This study demonstrated that children’s and parents’ use of a software program where they work collaboratively at home resulted in increased number sense skills. These results were interpreted in the context of socio-cultural theory. The parents displayed different strategies during the mathematics work sessions, reflecting their own feelings about mathematics and technology