Participate

No current opportunities, but stay tuned!

Young Children

Help advance understanding of early math learning!

Math skills before the start of formal schooling are an important foundation for future academic achievement. To create the best teaching strategies, we first need to understand how young children think about numbers, and how number knowledge differs depending on age, background, and learning environment.

Right now, researchers are still debating a big question: How do children learn their very first number words? Do they connect them to an overall sense of “how many” (like an approximate, intuitive sense of quantity)? Or do they connect them to a precise ability to keep track of a small number of important objects (e.g., like their favorite toys)?

Most research so far has been done by small groups of scientists in labs, which means we don’t know for sure if the results apply to children in the community more broadly. This new project will bring together over 130 research teams to work with children (ages 2 years, 6 months to 5 years, 11 months) from many different cultural backgrounds, languages, and communities.

Our goal is to better understand early number learning, so we can design ways to improve children's early academic skills. We should have a new opportunity to participate soon, so stay tuned.

If you are a parent, educator, or other community member who is interested in connecting with one of our team members, please feel free to reach out. Stop by and say "hi" if you see us out in the community at one of our partnering schools or after-school programs.

If you would like to receive COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT NEWS (sent out 2-3 times a year via email to share lab news, opportunities to participate, and summaries of key findings in the cognitive, developmental, and learning sciences), please email us: clad@nd.edu

If you are looking for McNeil's slides from the excellence in teaching conference. You've found the right place!