Persistence of the impact of the Building Blocks program on Ecuadorian children’ early numerical abilities

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to examine the persistence of the impact of the Building Blocks program on Ecuadorian children’s early numerical abilities, one year after the finalization of the treatment. At the end of grade one, 313 children, who participated in the study during their kindergarten year, received a follow-through test on early numerical abilities. In kindergarten, children were assigned to either an experimental (Building Blocks program) or a control (regular mathematics program) condition. Results indicated that by the end of grade one, the children who participated in the experimental condition in kindergarten obtained significantly higher scores on the early numerical abilities test than those from the control condition, though the difference between both groups was smaller than at the end of the kindergarten. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed at the end.