Can mathematics-unrelated reading intervention improve children’s mathematical performance?

Abstract

This study aims to examine whether a maths-unrelated reading intervention can improve children’s mathematical performance and to compare the effects of maths-related and maths-unrelated reading interventions. Furthermore, this study examines whether the effects of reading interventions are moderated by individual differences, including gender, pre-test maths performance and general cognitive ability. One hundred thirty-four second-grade Chinese children were recruited into three different groups. In the control group, the children received business as usual teaching, while in the two experimental groups, the children received a maths-related or maths-unrelated reading intervention. The results showed that the maths-unrelated reading intervention could significantly improve children’s mathematical performance, and the beneficial effect did not differ from the maths-related intervention. Moreover, the effects of the two reading interventions were not moderated by children’s individual differences. These findings support the function hypothesis of language for mathematics.

Keywords:

• Mathematical performance
• reading intervention
• maths-related picture books
• maths-unrelated picture books
• individual differences

Acknowledgement

We thank Danfeng Li for proofreading this study.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest with respect to their authorship or the publication of this article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31470996 and No. 31871120). The Emerging interdisciplinary construction project of Central University of Finance and Economics (020859919004).