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Abstract

What behaviors and abilities do young, mathematically precocious children display? Are parents able to recognize such precocity? Questionnaires were completed by 100 parents of kindergarten-age children whom the parents thought to be mathematically precocious. Questions were derived from parents' spontaneous descriptions of the development of their children as well as behaviors consonant with items on two screening measures: the Arithmetic subtests of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) and the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, Revised (WPPSI-R). The children, as a group, did well on the screening measures, achieving mean scores of 121.4 (92nd percentile) on the K-ABC and 124.9 (95th percentile) on the Wechsler subscales. The questionnaire asked parents 27 items about children's mathematical behavior and 18 items comparing the children with peers on nonmathematical skills. Five factors were found to characterize the parents' responses: (a) a general intellectual factor, (b) short- and long-term memory, (c) rote (rehearsed) memory, (d) spatial reasoning, and (e) specific relational knowledge. It was concluded that parents can indeed identify young children who are advanced in mathematical reasoning and can describe that mathematical behavior in coherent ways.

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Parents' Observations of Kindergartners Who are Advanced in Mathematical Reasoning

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