Effectiveness of Early Intervention Programs in Developing Early Mathematical Skills: A meta-Analysis

Early intervention includes approaches to responding to young children may profit from targeted services. This study aims to synthesize recent evaluations of intervention programs of Big Math for Little Kids, Building Blocks, and Prekindergarten Mathematics Intervention Program in preschool and kindergarten children to determine the effectiveness of early intervention programs including experimental studies in last 15 years in developing early mathematical skills. Among 146 studies, 10 studies that met the inclusion criteria, which included experimental studies, publication bias, effect size, heterogeneity, moderator type of intervention program, the duration of the intervention, and the participants’ age. The results indicated a large effect size (Hedges’g=1.217) for the effectiveness of intervention programs according to random effects model and Cohen’s classification. While the results of moderator analyses highlighted a statistically meaningful difference in implementation periods, no significant differences were observed in terms of type of intervention program and age variables. Although meta-analyses regarding the effects of math interventions on school age students are available, there are hardly any meta-analyses addressing early intervention programs for enhancing preschool and kindergarten children’s math skills. The outcomes of the current study provided an evidence of the effectiveness of early intervention programs on math skills.