DEVELOPMENTAL-CHANGES IN MATHEMATICALLY PRECOCIOUS YOUNG-CHILDREN - LONGITUDINAL AND GENDER EFFECTS

Young children with advanced mathematical skill (N = 276) were followe d for two years, during kindergarten through 1st grade or 1st through 2nd grade. Children were randomly assigned to an intervention conditio n reflecting a constructivist approach or a control condition. Mean sc ores for the control group on standardized math, verbal, and visual-sp atial measures increased or remained the same. Boys gained more than g irls on the quantitative and visual-spatial measures. The treatment gr oup made greater gains than the control group on quantitative measures only. Gender did not interact with treatment condition. Correlations among the quantitative, verbal, and visual-spatial factors remained st able for control children, but the correlation between quantitative an d verbal factors increased for the intervention group.