Why a simple number board game helps young children with maths

EduTrend Contents · G4C Cognitive · Evidence: Strong (controlled experiments)

A home-made board with the numbers 1 to 10 in a straight line, a spinner and two counters. In a series of experiments, this was enough to improve preschoolers' number knowledge in about an hour of play.

Many children start school able to recite numbers but without a clear sense of how big each number is. They may not know that 8 is closer to 10 than to 2, or that the gap between 3 and 4 is the same as between 7 and 8. This "mental number line" is one of the foundations of later maths.

What the research found

Psychologists Geetha Ramani and Robert Siegler worked with low-income preschoolers in the United States. Children played a simple race game on a board with ten numbered squares in a row. On each move, they said the numbers of the squares they landed on. After four 15-minute sessions, the children improved at counting, reading numerals, comparing numbers and placing numbers on a line. The gains were still there nine weeks later. Children who played the same game with coloured squares instead of numbers did not improve.

A follow-up study compared boards: a straight track worked, a circular track did not. The straight line seems to help children map "further along" to "bigger".

How to make the most of it

• Use a straight track. Ten squares in a row for 4-5 year olds; twenty, or 1-100 in rows of ten, for older children.

• Say the numbers you land on. "Six, seven", not "one, two". This is the key ingredient in the studies.

• Use a spinner or die with small numbers (1-3) so games are short and children play several in a row.

• Play often. A few short sessions spread over two weeks is better than one long one.

Note that the studies were done with preschoolers. For older children, board games are still good practice for counting on and planning, but the evidence for large gains is strongest at ages 4-6.

Try this tomorrow. Draw ten squares in a row on paper and number them. Use buttons as counters and a coin as a spinner (heads = move 1, tails = move 2). Play three quick games and count out loud together.

Related resource: G4C-110 Thinking Games includes a printable number track and five number and strategy games, from Make Ten to Race to 20. Coming soon to EduStore; subscribe to the newsletter to hear when it opens.

Sources / Further reading

• Ramani, G. B., & Siegler, R. S. (2008). Promoting broad and stable improvements in low-income children's numerical knowledge through playing number board games. Child Development, 79(2), 375-394. Link

• Siegler, R. S., & Ramani, G. B. (2009). Playing linear number board games, but not circular ones, improves low-income preschoolers' numerical understanding. Journal of Educational Psychology, 101(3), 545-560. Link