Would we need elaborate, expensive, high-tech methods to improve preschoolers understanding of number? Robert Siegler, in his article "Improving the Numerical Understanding of Children from Low-Income Families" (Child Development Perspectives, 2009, Vol. 3(2), pp. 118-124), reports on the effectiveness of a cheap, old-fashioned method which is fun for everybody: the board game. Siegel reported that an hour of playing a simple board game produced gains in 4- and 5-year-olds' abilities to compare the size of numbers, to estimate where on a number line a point should be placed, to count, and to identify numerals. Siegler suggests that all of these benefits could come from a board game like Candyland or Chutes and Ladders.
The library will soon have Candyland and Chutes and Ladders available for checkout to the Goodwin College community. The Library Advocacy Committee is sponsoring this opportunity for you to borrow Candyland or Chutes and Ladders as well as other games and toys from the Goodwin Library. If you happen to have games, books, or toys to donate, they would be greatly appeciated. Watch this blog for the starting date.
Source: The first paragraph in Child Myths: Straight Talk About Child
Development by Jean Mercer, Ph.D. July 29, 2009
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