Playing number board games supports 5-year-old children’s early mathematical development

• Playing numerical games supports five-year-olds number and arithmetical development.
• The linear number board game improve children’s number line representation.
• The linear number board game strengthens children’s early arithmetic skills.
• The findings support the representational mapping hypothesis.

The study examined effects of playing number games (linear number board game, circular number board game, and nonlinear numerical activities) on the development of number knowledge and early arithmetic. A passive control group was also included in the design. 114 5-year-old preschool children participated. Four tasks (number line estimation, counting, naming Arabic numbers, and arithmetic calculation) were used as dependent measures. Children assigned to an intervention participated in six 10-min sessions during a period of three weeks. Children playing the linear number board game improved their performance on the number line estimation task, while children playing the other games did not. Furthermore, children playing the linear number board game showed a substantial enhancement of their calculation performance. The positive effects of playing linear number board games support the representational mapping hypothesis. The finding concerning calculation provides support to the assumption that a linear representation is important for early arithmetical learning.