Counting the benefits of new math app

Counting the benefits of new math app
A new iPad app designed to bring math into children's homes through story time has led to improvements in achievement, according to new research published inScience. The results were particularly significant for children whose parents were anxious about the subject.
 
In Chicago, 587 families of first graders were recruited into the study. All were given an iPad mini and asked to use an app called Bedtime Learning Together (BLT) several times a week over the course of a school year. Of the families in the project, 420 were randomly assigned to use a math version of the app, and 167 to a control group using a reading version. In each case, children and their parents were asked to read passages and answer corresponding questions that ranged in difficulty. Families could answer as many questions as they wanted during each interaction with the app.

The authors were able to track how often parents used the app with their children. In addition, each child's math achievement was assessed at school in a one-to-one session with a trained research assistant, using the Woodcock-Johnson Applied Problems scale, both at the beginning of the trial (before the iPads were distributed) and at the end of the school year.

The authors found that the math intervention significantly increased children's math achievement across the school year compared to the reading control group, especially for children whose parents were habitually anxious about math. Using the reading app did not have the same effect on math achievement, showing that it was not academic engagement with parents in general that increased math achievement, but engagement with math content specifically.
The authors attribute the success of this app to its simplicity (avoiding distracting elements), and being designed to be used by parents and children together (based on the importance of early parental input, and specifically parent math talk, for children's achievement).

Johns Hopkins University 

Research in Brief

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