The development of place value concepts: Approximation before principles

Mix, Kelly S., Bower, Corinne A., Hancock, Gregory R., Yuan, Lei and Smith, Linda B. (2022) The development of place value concepts: Approximation before principles. Child Development, 93 (3). pp. 778-793. ISSN 0009-3920

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Abstract

Place value concepts were measured longitudinally from kindergarten (2017) to first grade (2018) in a diverse sample (n = 279; Mage = 5.76 years, SD = 0.55; 135 females; 41% Black, 38% White, 8% Asian, 12% Latino). Children completed three syntactic tasks that required an explicit understanding of base-10 symbols and three approximate tasks that could be completed without this explicit understanding. Approximate performance was significantly better in both age groups. A factor analysis confirmed that syntactic and approximate tasks tapped separate latent variables in kindergarten, but not in first grade. Path analyses indicated that only kindergarten approximate performance predicted overall first-grade place value understanding. These findings suggest that explicit understanding of base-10 principles develops from implicit, partial knowledge of multidigit numbers.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	The data are published here: https://drum.lib.umd.edu/handle/1903/21495.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	pediatrics, perinatology, and child health,education,developmental and educational psychology ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2700/2735
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Related URLs:	https://www.scopus.com/pages/publication...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	18 Jun 2026 21:02
Last Modified:	18 Jun 2026 21:02
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/103449
DOI:	10.1111/cdev.13724

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