DEVELOPMENT OF ARITHMETICAL COMPETENCES IN CHINESE AND AMERICAN CHILDREN - INFLUENCE OF AGE, LANGUAGE, AND SCHOOLING

The arithmetical competencies of more than 200 Chinese or American kin dergarten, first-, second-, or third-grade children were assessed towa rd the beginning and toward the end of the U.S. school year. All child ren were administered a paper-and-pencil test of addition skills, a di git span measure, and an addition strategy assessment. The addition st rategy assessment provided information on the types of strategies the children used to solve simple addition problems as well as information on the speed and accuracy of their strategy use. Information on the n umber of math instruction periods across times of measurement was also obtained for each of the first-, second-, and third-grade children. T he pattern of arithmetical development across the academic year and ac ross the Chinese and American children suggests that a mix of cultural and maturational factors influence the emergence of early arithmetica l competencies and that the Chinese advantage in early mathematical de velopment is related to a combination of language- and school-related factors.