De relatie tussen tweetaligheid en voorbereidende rekenvaardigheid bij kinderen in groep 2 van het reguliere basisonderwijs

Abstract

Objective: To study the possible difference in early numeracy between preschool children who only speak Dutch and bilingual children. Literacy, the family size and position of the child within the family, the parents’ education and (problem) behaviour are studied within the context of the main question. Method: 121 preschool children and their families participated after convenience sampling. The Utrecht Early Numeracy Test – Revised (UGT-R), “Cito Taaltoets voor Kleuters” (Cito TvK), Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ-NL) and a questionnaire for the parents are used to obtain information about the preschoolers and their parents. Results: The early numeracy of only Dutch speaking preschoolers is better than the early numeracy of bilingual preschoolers. First, there is no significant difference between the groups found when corrected by literacy. Second, the family size and the position of the child within the family are not significantly related to early numeracy. Third, only the education of the mother is significant related to the early numeracy of preschoolers. And finally, the early numeracy is positive and significantly related to a couple of (problem) behaviours for all the participants together and the group of only Dutch speaking preschoolers. Only one significant negative relation is found for bilingual preschoolers. Conclusions: Only a few factors are related to the differences in early numeracy between Dutch speaking and bilingual preschoolers. These are mothers’ education and some behaviours. Limitations of this study include the small and select sample size. Further research must provide information about the role of sex, parents and culture in early numeracy.