MU Curator’s psychology professor David Geary published a study Jan. 30 about how certain mathematical skills learned before or during the first grade can affect how well people might perform certain jobs and how much money they make.

“A substantial number of adults have not mastered the mathematics expected of an eighth grader (22 percent in the U.S.),” according to the study.

The study found that early number system knowledge, or the conceptualization of numbers as physical objects, is important for students to learn early in elementary school or possibly even before.

“It’s important to understand that there is early number (system) knowledge,” said Geary. “If you don’t have it, learning of employment relevant skills is slowed down.”

The analysis is based on 180 Columbia elementary school students who participated from the first grade through the eighth grade, according to the study. The student participants covered many variables including socioeconomic background, learning capabilities and gender.

Geary said he will continue to follow the students until they have graduated high school as long as the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development continues to fund the research.

Geary used several tests to determine which skills were important for employability, using number lines and dice to show how well students could conceptualize the value of numbers. The study showed that a seventh grader’s score on the functional numeracy measure was significantly correlated with their beginning of first grade counting competence.

“Groups of skills did predict test performance,” Geary said. “Decomposing numerals into different sets seemed to be important early on.”

In the seventh grade, the students took a test that was similar to other math achievement tests but was more focused on what affects “economic opportunity and other real-world outcomes,” according to the study.

Daniel Berch, an education professor at the University of Virginia and former colleague of Geary’s, said the study is important because it informs people where and when they have to begin remediating the problem.

“It doesn’t tell you how (to remediate the problem),” Berch said. “But that’s not a shortcoming. It’s not that kind of study.”

Geary said there are ideas on how to intervene and improve early number knowledge, but he doesn’t know how to improve it yet.

“Teaching kids to count isn’t that helpful,” Geary said. “If they can count, it doesn’t mean they understand.”

Berch said several studies are being done targeting what can effectively improve students’ early number knowledge, including a study published by Hammill Institute on Disabilities.

The Hammill study showed that students placed in the intervention group, which focused on concepts related to counting, comparing and manipulating sets, did better than the control group, showing there are interventions for poor early number system knowledge.

Geary is currently working on studying preschool children to determine even more basic skills and find what could be leading to poor early number knowledge, though he said he is just getting started.

“It’s critical to figure out why they’re having trouble,” he said.