Capturing Math Language Use During Block Play: Creation of the Spatial and Quantitative Mathematical Language Coding System

Abstract

The goals of the current study were: 1) to modify and expand an existing spatial mathematical language coding system to include quantitative mathematical language terms and 2) to examine the extent to which preschool-aged children used spatial and quantitative mathematical language during a block play intervention. Participants included 24 preschool-aged children (Age M = 57.35 months) who were assigned to a block play intervention. Children participated in up to 14 sessions of 15-to-20-minute block play across seven weeks. Results demonstrated that spatial mathematical language terms were used with a higher raw frequency than quantitative mathematical language terms during the intervention sessions. However, once weighted frequencies were calculated to account for the number of codes in each category, spatial language was only used slightly more than quantitative language during block play. Similar patterns emerged between domains within the spatial and quantitative language categories. These findings suggest that both quantitative and spatial mathematical language usage should be evaluated when considering whether child activities can improve mathematical learning and spatial performance. Further, accounting for the number of codes within categories provided a more representative presentation of how mathematical language was used versus solely utilizing raw word counts. Implications for future research are discussed.

Keywords

• mathematical language
• spatial language
• quantitative language
• preschool
• block play