Effectiveness of the Building Blocks program for enhancing Ecuadorian kindergartners’ numerical competencies

Abstract

We investigated the effectiveness of the Building Blocks program for enhancing Ecuadorian kindergart-ners’ early numerical abilities and spontaneous focusing on numerosity (SFON), after controlling forworking memory, intelligence, age, and SES. Following a pretest-intervention-posttest design, 18 classescomprising 355 children from varied SES backgrounds were randomly assigned to either an experimental(BB program) or a control (regular mathematics program) condition. Results showed that the childrenfrom the experimental group made more progress in their early numerical competencies than thosefrom the control group. Furthermore, the BB program was associated with higher quality mathematicseducation. We discuss the theoretical and educational implications for early numeracy development ingeneral, and for the Ecuadorian situation in particular.