Early Childhood Math Strategies

This action research was led by the researcher’s interest in improving early learners’ academic mathematics achievement, specifically in oral counting, number identification, and counting 1:1 correspondence up to twenty, for targeted students. The researcher is in her 14th year of teaching, but 3rd year as an Early Childhood Special Education teacher, where her own students participated in a trial group intervention study. The four-week intervention was performed where students engaged in mathematics practice with implementation of five instructional practices and providing interactive engaging math games that specifically focused on skills including oral counting, number identification, and 1:1 correspondence. Throughout the four weeks, student progress was monitored weekly by the researcher on each of these skills in mathematics. The findings of this research reveal that this type of intervention and classroom support increases student achievement in specific math skills including 93% in oral counting, 60% in number identification, and 91% in counting 1:1 correspondence. Further research in implementing different types of math strategies for math instruction and application, including various interactive engaging math apps, in an early childhood setting to help students increase their performance in this developmental area would be recommended in the future