Abstract
There is a relationship between reading and math skills, as well as comorbidity between reading and math disorders. A mutual foundation for this comorbidity could be that the quality of phonological representations is important for both early reading and arithmetic. In this study, we examine this hypothesis in a sample traced longitudinally from preschool to first grade (N = 259). The results show that phonological awareness does not explain development in arithmetic, but that there is an indirect effect between phoneme awareness in preschool and arithmetic in first grade via phoneme awareness in first grade. This effect is, however, weak and restricted to verbal arithmetic and not arithmetic fluency. This finding is only partly in line with other studies, and a reason could be that this study more strongly controls for confounders and previous skills than other studies.
Highlights
Mastering reading and math is vital for academic performance and important life skills critical for employment and participation in society
Six constructs were measured in preschool and five constructs were measured in first grade
Strong correlations were found between phoneme awareness and both reading and verbal arithmetic
Summary
Mastering reading and math is vital for academic performance and important life skills critical for employment and participation in society. Researchers have long known that there is a rather close relationship between reading and mathematics. The two skills correlate moderately to highly (Peng et al, 2020), and a large number of children with dyslexia struggle with math difficulties. Many children with dyscalculia have difficulties in reading (Joyner and Wagner, 2020). A question yet to be answered is what kind of foundational skills might be a common factor underlying reading and arithmetic. One hypothesis that has gained support is that phonological processing underlies early reading skills and foundational mathematic skills. We investigate this hypothetical cause of the relationship between early reading and mathematics skills and focus on the relationship between math and early reading
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