Project 1: Relationship between Parental Input and Mathematical Skills

  An example page of the book    A prototype for the toys for the play

Hello everyone, this study looks for preschool children at age 4,5- 5,5 and (one of) their parents in order to investigate the math skills of the children and the parents' contribution to its development. This research also includes studying gestures. Even though similar studies can be found in the literature, there is not any study that worked with children in this age group, so reaching out to preschool children is very important and valuable.

This study aims to examine the parents and their children via video recording while they are playing and reading together in their home environment, and then, the children will be introduced to some fun, age-appropriate, math-related tasks in order to analyze their math skills. These activities will be enjoying parent-child activities for the children and the parents, but they will also be important contributions to the research. Plus, both mothers and fathers are welcomed and encouraged to join the study. Thank you for your interest!

Project 2:

My current research is centered on investigating the impact of verbal and gestural interactions from both mothers and fathers on the early literacy development of children aged 60-72 months. In addition to examining various parental verbal input styles, a particular focus is placed on evaluating the child's individual inhibitory control skills, which have been identified as critical for future academic success in existing literature. I am most importantly interested in whether the environment how the child is being raised before starting primary school has a significant impact on boosting the child once they start 1st grade.

To collect data, I am conducting home visits and collaborating with family triads, involving both parents and the target child. The study is structured into distinct steps, collectively spanning approximately 20 minutes. I've developed two interactive games, facilitating an engaging 5-minute gameplay session within the families. Families are prompted to share their experiences in this dialogue, followed by various other fun tasks.

Upon concluding the data collection process, I express gratitude by sending a special certificate of participation to the involved families. Additionally, I compile an individualized report detailing the current state of each child's early literacy skills, contributing valuable insights to the ongoing discourse on early childhood development.

Project 3:

    Recruitment Poster

Hi! You are invited to a study conducted in the Multimodal Language & Cognitive Development Lab at METU!

This study is about the mathematical development of preschool-aged children.

From the beginning of their life, children try to learn number knowledge. We mostly see them counting the objects, by using their hands. Mostly, they can count from 1 to 10 in their memory. However, they struggle to learn the true meaning of numbers and math as well.

In the literature, some factors were determined to have an impact on preschoolers' math performance. These are the spatial skills and language ability.

Mathematics cannot be considered independently from language and space. These factors somehow change children's performance in math tasks.

By attending this study, you can help us to understand which factors are more related to children's math performance. In this study, we will have several plays and activities which will last about 45 minutes. These activities will include reading pictured books, locating the object, counting the beads, and making some calculations.

You can reach me about the project via: huseyin.yalciner@metu.edu.tr