No evidence that playing a linear number board game improves numerical skills beyond teaching as usual: A randomized controlled trial in 4- to 5-year-old primary school children

Early numerical skills are important not only for later mathematical achievement but for overall achievement and are associated with later income, health, and quality of life. Socioeconomic disparities in numerical skills are visible before children begin school, and widen throughout schooling. It is, therefore, important to support the development of early numerical skills in children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Previous studies have highlighted the effectiveness of linear number board games for improving early numerical skills, and the beneficial effect of counting backward as well as forward. We designed a number board game that required children to place number cards in order on a line, either forward-only or forward and backward in small groups in the classroom. The game’s effectiveness was evaluated in 4- to 5-year-old children from schools located in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas. Children were randomly allocated to one of three conditions: playing the number game forward-only (n = 82), playing the number game forward and backward (i.e., bidirectional condition; n = 82), or an alphabet game (active control, n = 85). After eight gameplay sessions across 5 weeks, children’s numerical and letter-sound knowledge skills improved, but there was no significant effect of the intervention condition. Neither forward nor bidirectional number line games (nor the alphabet game) added benefits beyond the learning already happening in the classroom. Short linear board game interventions may be effective compared to control groups who received minimal or absent numerical education, but they fail to provide an additional advantage when children are already learning mathematics in school.