The Influence of Language Arts Performance on Mathematics Performance at the Kindergarten Level

There is a movement in today’s schools which calls for children to be reading and writing in complete sentences by the end of their kindergarten year. It is believed that an early ability to read will give children a higher rate of success later in their school life. Language arts skills in are necessary for the ability to decode and comprehend problems regardless of subject areas. This study examines three children who started kindergarten with low language arts and mathematics skills to examine whether growth of students’ performance in language arts positively influences their performance in math. Initial assessments identified students with low math and language arts skills. Once chosen, the three students were subjected to Letter/Sound Identification, Concepts About Print, and mathematics tests at the beginning of each month in a three-month period to measure the results of instruction from the previous month. The results show that as language arts skills increase, so do mathematics skills. The study does not conclusively prove that increased ability in language arts skills forces mathematics skills to positively increase, only that the scores increased over time. The author recommends a longer test period and the need to consider home reinforcement in the improvement of skills.

Author dc:creator

• Fuller, Edward John

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Beers, Morris J.
• Kramer-Schlosser, Linda
• Baker, Patricia E.

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12648/5286

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:soar.suny.edu:20.500.12648/5286