Preschoolers Doing Arithmetic

I was interested in the topic of problem solving and reasoning in the development of a child. I searched and then read an article titled, "Preschoolers Doing Arithmetic: The Concepts are willing but the working memory is weak." The researchers were Juliette Klein and Jeffery Bisanz. Their two hypotheses were, "Certain information processing demands, and particularly those involving working memory, will make some problems more difficult than others for preschoolers." and also "Preschoolers lack the conceptual understanding of arithmetic necessary for creating effective solution procedures." The researchers investigated 48 4 year olds, half male and half female,  individually on two different days. In the first session the child would be pretested to determine if they could count to ten and if they couldn't then they were excluded from the study. Then after the pretest, the researcher would use poker chips to non verbally express the mathematical equation, such as 2+4=6. Two chips would be revealed to the child and then covered by a box. The researcher would then put 4 more chips into the box and the child would count how many chips were inside the box using their own poker chips. On the second day, the researchers tested three-term problems, such as 1+2+2=5 (standard form) or 1+2-2=1 (inversion form). Using the same box and chips technique, the researcher would put chips in or subtract chips and the child would do the same with their chips to get the final solution.
The researchers were testing how children solved nonverbal mathematical equations using their working memory of big numbers and small numbers, alike. Their conclusions were as follows: The children were very successful at solving these non-verbal problems and they didn't just mimic the researcher but mentally solved the equation before moving the poker chips. Children are born with some innate capacity of the knowledge to solve arithmetic and they are willing to explore the short cuts to inversion problems, but they may just not know how to use them fully. Their findings suggest knowing the role of this working memory can help identify children who may be having learning difficulties. It can also highlight different ways math can be taught in school, while connecting it to a previous learning experience developed during social interactment (i.e. "give and take" while playing with peers in relation to adding and subtracting numbers).
It was interesting to note how such young children can understand arithmetic in its simplest form. They can understand that when two is added to one and then taken away all you have left is the original number, one. It is fascinating to see preschoolers comprehending and utilzing these problem-solving and reasoning skills.

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