Structured versus free block play: the impact on arithmetic processing

Newman, Sharlene D.; Loughery, Erin; Ecklund, Ambur; You, Cindy X.; Werder, Hannah Von; Soylu, Fırat

doi:10.1016/j.tine.2020.100146

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Lego building recruits block construction ability, an ability that involves assembling objects, such as Lego or other similar block materials, to create a structure or model. There is robust evidence that block construction ability is positively related to mathematics outcomes from concurrent studies (e.g., Nath & Szücs, 2014; Richardson et al, 2014; Verdine, Golinkoff, et al, 2014), longitudinal investigations (e.g., Verdine, Irwin, et al, 2014; Wolfgang et al, 2003), and from intervention studies (e.g., Hawes et al, 2017; Newman et al, 2021; Schmitt et al, 2018). Despite this, there is little knowledge of the underlying mechanisms which support this association.…”

Section: Lego and Mathematicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Associations and indirect effects between LEGO® construction and mathematics performance

et al. 2023

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There is a known association between LEGO® construction ability and mathematics achievement, yet the mechanisms which drive this association are largely unknown. This study investigated the spatial mechanisms underlying this association, and whether this differs for concrete versus digital construction. Between January 2020 and July 2021, children aged 7–9 years (N = 358, 189 female, ethnicity not recorded) completed spatial and mathematics tasks, and either a concrete or digital Lego construction task. Mediation analyses examining direct and indirect pathways (through spatial skills) between Lego construction ability and mathematics explained 8.4% to 26.6% of variance in mathematics scores. Exploratory moderated mediation analyses revealed that only the indirect path through mental rotation differed between Lego conditions. Findings are discussed in relation to theories of spatial‐numerical associations and the potential of Lego training for mathematics improvement.

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Section: Lego and Mathematicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Associations and indirect effects between LEGO® construction and mathematics performance

et al. 2023

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“…Consequently, there has been a proliferation of structured block play during which children build a target structure from a model or illustration. Though structured versus free play with blocks limits children's choice and creativity within building activities (and therefore potentially being deemed less playful), it is theorised that building predefined structures specifically encourages children to mentally visualize and transform objects (e.g., segmenting objects into parts and combining into a whole, transforming a 2D image into a 3D structure) (Newman et al, 2021).…”

Section: Guided Playmentioning

confidence: 99%

Educational interventions involving physical manipulatives for improving children’s learning and development: a scoping review

Byrne¹,

Ramchandani²

2022

Preprint

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WHY DID WE DO THIS RESEARCH?Hands-on learning activities with physical objects – or physical manipulatives (PMs) – can be great at encouraging children’s active participation in learning. Cast your mind back to your own childhood: do you remember using items like counters, shapes, or fraction bars in school? If so, you were using PMs! We wanted to find out what kind of research has been done on educational programmes involving PMs.WHAT DID WE DO?We conducted a scoping review – a type of literature review used to identify and broadly describe a body of research according to certain inclusion criteria. We searched several academic databases for studies that have tested the effectiveness of PM interventions with primary-age children; 102 studies met our inclusion criteria and were synthesised in the review.WHAT DID WE FIND?Most studies involved children between 4-6 years in school settings. They spanned 26 different countries, but almost all took place in high- or middle-income contexts, typically the USA. The interventions involved different PMs and hands-on activities (e.g., block building, shape sorting, paper folding), and evidence relating their effectiveness was mixed. Whilst some studies reported benefits to children’s math, spatial, or literacy skills, others did not, and many were hindered by methodological shortcomings. This means we must be cautious when drawing conclusions about the overall effectiveness of PM interventions. Nevertheless, the findings illustrate the many ways hands-on experiences with PMs can facilitate children’s active engagement in learning. Going forward, higher quality research is needed, as well as more studies testing PM interventions in lower-income contexts.

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“…Block construction toys such as LEGO ® are extremely popular, and evidence suggests that block construction skills in childhood are positively related to mathematics performance, cross-sectionally (e.g., Nath and Szücs 2014 ), and longitudinally (e.g., Verdine et al 2014a ). There is also some preliminary evidence that training block construction skills can improve children’s mathematics performance ( Newman et al 2020 ; although, see Bower et al 2020a ; Schmitt et al 2018 ). Therefore, and as outlined by Verdine et al ( 2014b ), early spatial skills may be key for school readiness in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) subjects.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Beyond correlational findings, recent intervention work with this age group provides evidence that structured block construction may enhance mathematics ability. Newman et al ( 2020 ) found that a structured block play intervention led to significantly faster performance on addition and subtraction calculation problems in 7- to 9-year-olds compared to a free-play block intervention that showed no significant gains (note, however, that this was not reflected in an intervention group x pre-test vs. post-test interaction, possibly due to the small sample size of 43). Furthermore, using MRI, they demonstrated that children in the structured block play intervention group showed increased activation in several brain regions after training while children in the free-play group did not.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building Numeracy Skills: Associations between DUPLO® Block Construction and Numeracy in Early Childhood

et al. 2023

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Research shows that children’s block construction skills are positively associated with their concurrent and later mathematics performance. Furthermore, there is evidence that block construction training is particularly beneficial for improving early mathematics skills in children from low-Socio Economic Status (SES) groups who are known to have lower maths performance than their peers. The current study investigates (a) the association between block construction and mathematics in children just before the start of formal schooling (4 years-of-age in the UK) and (b) whether the association between block construction and mathematics differs between children from more compared to less affluent families. Participants in this study included 116 children (M = 3 years 11 months, SD = 3 months) who all completed numeracy, block construction, and receptive vocabulary tasks. Socio-economic status and demographic information (child age, gender, ethnicity) were also obtained from parents. Findings show a strong positive association between block construction and early numeracy skills. Block construction skills explained approximately 5% of the variation in numeracy, even after controlling for age in months, household income, and child receptive vocabulary. When separated by SES group, for children from less affluent families, block construction explained a significant amount of variability (14.5%) in numeracy performance after covariates. For children from more affluent families, block construction did not explain a significant amount of variation in numeracy. These findings suggest that, interventions involving block construction skills may help to reduce SES-based attainment gaps in UK children’s mathematics achievement.

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Structured versus free block play: the impact on arithmetic processing

Cited by 6 publications

References 49 publications

Associations and indirect effects between LEGO® construction and mathematics performance

Associations and indirect effects between LEGO® construction and mathematics performance

Educational interventions involving physical manipulatives for improving children’s learning and development: a scoping review

Building Numeracy Skills: Associations between DUPLO® Block Construction and Numeracy in Early Childhood

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