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We examined the role of visuo-spatial working memory in different types of arithmetic ability in children. Previous research had suggested that arithmetic is not a single entity (Dowker, 2005, 2015), and also that visuo-spatial working memory is specifically involved in mathematical cognition (McKenzie et al., 2003) There has, however, been little research on the relationships between visuo-spatial working memory and different types of arithmetic. We tested 39 children in Year 2 (6 to 7 years) and Year 4 (8 to 9 years), taking measures of written arithmetic, mental oral arithmetic, and derived fact strategy use (the ability to derive unknown arithmetical facts from known facts, by using arithmetical principles). We also measured visuospatial working memory, verbal comprehension, and spelling ability. We investigated the relationships between visuo-spatial working memory and our three arithmetic measures, as well as spelling and verbal comprehension, to test whether these effects were specific to mathematical abilities. We found that visuo-spatial working memory was specifically associated with both verbal oral and mental written arithmetic, and but not with spelling or derived fact strategy use.

The study focuses on the effect of the lexical-syntactic structure on the patterns of errors by Arab first graders in tasks involving reading two-digit number and writing two-digit numbers to dictation. Children made few change or omission errors, indicating that they had little problem with the lexical aspects of the counting system. However, they made frequent substitution errors (e.g., 23 for 32), especially in the number reading task, and especially for numbers that depended strongly on the numerical syntactic structure. Such errors were less common for decade numbers and for the 11-19 number range than for other two-digit numbers. The results suggest particular difficulty with the syntactic rather than lexical aspects of the counting system. The syntactic aspects may be particularly difficult for Arabic-speaking children, due to the inversion feature of the Arabic counting system.

Developmental cognitive neuroscience highlights the importance of interactions between children and their environment. As young children spend increasing time in childcare, it is key to investigate the impact of "maths-talk" and maths provisions in preschools. Qualitative insights from early educators indicate a greater bias toward counting activities than would be expected given the Early Years curriculum. In addition, we quantified the observed breadth of preschool practitioners' maths language (e.g., place-value language), setting-based maths provisions (e.g., quality of maths-related activities), and their relation with children's early numeracy skills. In settings with greater practitioners' breadth of maths language, children display greater cardinality skills although our data call for the further investigation of parental socioeconomic status and education. We conclude with a discussion on the need to operationalize children's maths learning environments as diversely as possible. Enriching practitioners' skill sets may be an effective and needed way of improving early maths outcomes.

Most studies of children's attitudes to mathematics have dealt with children in second grade or later, and have suggested that attitudes deteriorate, and anxiety increases with age. The present study investigated attitudes to mathematics in 67 English and 49 Chinese children at the end of their first year of school. The participants were given Thomas and Dowker's (2000) Mathematics Attitude Questionnaire, which uses pictorial rating scales to assess primary school children's mathematics anxiety, liking for mathematics, unhappiness at poor performance in mathematics, and self-rating in mathematics. They were also given the British Abilities Scales Basic Number Skills test. Attitudes were generally positive, though not more so than previously found for older primary school children. The Chinese children performed better in the arithmetic test and also rated themselves higher than the English children, but did not differ in other attitudes. Self-rating in mathematics and lack of unhappiness at poor performance were associated with better performance in the English group. There were no significant relationships between attitudes and performance in the Chinese group. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Background: Children have been found to report and demonstrate math anxiety as early as the first grade. However, previous results concerning the relationship between math anxiety and performance are contradictory, with some studies establishing a correlation between them while others do not. These contradictory results might be related to varying operationalizations of math anxiety. Aims: In this study, we aimed to examine the prevalence of math anxiety and its relationship with basic arithmetic skills in primary school children, with explicit focus on two aspects of math anxiety: anxiety about failure in mathematics and anxiety in math-related situations. Sample: The participants comprised 1,327 children at grades 2-5. Methods: Math anxiety was assessed using six items, and basic arithmetic skills were assessed using three assessment tasks. Results: Around one-third of the participants reported anxiety about being unable to do math, one-fifth about having to answer teachers' questions, and one tenth about having to do math. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that anxiety about math-related situations and anxiety about failure in mathematics are separable aspects of math anxiety. Structural equation modelling suggested that anxiety about math-related situations was more strongly associated with arithmetic fluency than anxiety about failure. Anxiety about math-related situations was most common among second graders and least common among fifth graders. Conclusions: As math anxiety, particularly about math-related situations, was related to arithmetic fluency even as early as the second grade, children's negative feelings and math anxiety should be identified and addressed from the early primary school years.