NumLit: Development of numeracy and literacy in children (completed)

• Donolato, Enrica; caviola, sara; masi, alice; Lervåg, Arne & Melby-Lervåg, Monica (2026). Attitudes and emotions in the context of mathematical learning: A systematic review and meta-analysis of intervention studies. Educational Research Review. ISSN 1747-938X. doi: https:/www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1747938X26000540. Full text in Research Archive
• Wahl, Hedda Novang; Donolato, Enrica; Melby-Lervåg, Monica & Lervåg, Arne (2025). The psychometric properties of two math anxiety scales in a sample of Norwegian primary school children. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research. ISSN 0031-3831. 70(1), p. 147–163. doi: 10.1080/00313831.2025.2459906. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS) and the Achievement Emotion Questionnaire – Math Anxiety (AEQ-MA) in a sample of Norwegian primary school students invited to participate during preschool. A total of 222 children completed both scales, and math tasks in Grade 3 and they followed up on the same questionnaires and math tests in Grade 4. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that a two-factor solution best suited the data for both self-report tools, with the AMAS defined by learning anxiety and testing anxiety dimensions and the AEQ-MA defined by the test-related and the class-and-learning math anxiety factors. Both questionnaires showed good internal consistency, measurement invariance across grade levels and genders, and concurrent validity with math tasks. In conclusion, the AMAS and the AEQ-MA present good psychometric properties and are suitable measures for assessing math anxiety in the first grades of formal education among Norwegian children.

• Grande, German; Amland, Tonje; Bergen, Elsje van; Melby-Lervåg, Monica & Lervåg, Arne (2025). The intergenerational impact of mothers and fathers on children’s word reading development. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. ISSN 0021-9630. 66(7), p. 946–955. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.14107. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Background Numerous studies have investigated the associations between the home literacy environment (HLE) and children's word reading skills. However, these associations may partly reflect shared genetic factors since parents provide both the reading environment and their child's genetic predisposition to reading. Hence, the relationship between the HLE and children's reading is genetically confounded. To address this, parents' reading abilities have been suggested as a covariate, serving as a proxy for genetic transmission. The few studies that have incorporated this covariate control have made no distinction between the HLE reported by each parent or controlled for different skills in parents and children. We predicted children's reading development over time by the reading abilities of both parents as covariates and both parents' self-reported HLE as predictors. Methods We analyzed data from 242 unrelated children, 193 mothers, and 144 fathers. Children's word reading was assessed in Grades 1 and 3, and parents' word reading was assessed on a single occasion. Predictors of children's reading development included literacy resources and shared reading activities. Results Children's reading in Grade 3 was predicted by mothers' engagement in reading activities and by literacy resources at home, even after controlling for the genetic proxy of parental reading abilities. The longitudinal rate of change from Grades 1 to 3 was not associated with the HLE or parental reading. Conclusions Our finding that parental reading skills predicted children's word reading beyond children's initial word reading underscores the importance of considering genetic confounding in research on the home environment. Beyond parental reading abilities, children's skills were predicted by literacy resources in the home and by how often mothers engage in reading activities with their children. This suggests true environmental effects.

• Elnes, Magdalena; Hansen, Joakim Evensen; Lervåg, Arne Ola; Hatlevik, Ove Edvard & Reikerås, Elin Kirsti Lie (2024). Verbal and non-verbal skills in early childhood: dimensionality, developmental trajectories, and gender differences. Frontiers in Psychology. 15. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1330334. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This study examines the dimensionality of and relationships between two subscales from the British Ability Scales – Third Edition, measuring verbal (expressive vocabulary) and non-verbal (reasoning) cognitive skills for toddlers (age three) and preschoolers (age five), in a Norwegian context across genders. Descriptive statistics revealed item selection criteria that included specific items within each subscale. Subsequently, Confirmatory Factor Analysis established the subscales’ dimensionality (Naming Vocabulary and Picture Similarities; N = 1094) and confirmed measurement invariance across genders. Further, the relationships between the verbal and non-verbal factors were investigated using correlation analysis and Structural Equation Modeling. The findings revealed that the verbal factor at age three strongly predicted the verbal factor at age five and significantly influenced the non-verbal factor at age five. The non-verbal factor at age three exhibited a moderate predictive relationship with the non-verbal factor at age five, and did not significantly predict the verbal factor at age five. In terms of gender differences, girls showed higher scores on the verbal factor at age three, and a stronger correlation between the non-verbal factor at age three and the verbal factor at age five. In summary, this research provides valuable insights into cognitive skill measurement and development in a Norwegian context and highlights possible variations across gender. The study’s findings, limitations, and implications are discussed.

• Amland, Tonje; Grande, German; Scherer, Ronny; Lervåg, Arne & Melby-Lervåg, Monica (2024). Cognitive Factors Underlying Mathematical Skills: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Psychological bulletin. ISSN 0033-2909. doi: 10.1037/bul0000457. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In understanding the nature of mathematical skills, the most influential theories suggest that mathematical cognition draws on different systems: numerical, linguistic, spatial, and general cognitive skills. Studies show that skills in these areas are highly predictive of outcomes in mathematics. Nonetheless, the strength of these relations with mathematical achievement varies, and little is known about the moderators or relative importance of each predictor. Based on 269 concurrent and 174 longitudinal studies comprising 2,696 correlations, this meta-analysis summarizes the evidence on cognitive predictors of mathematical skills in children and adolescents. The results showed that nonsymbolic number skills (often labeled approximate number sense) correlate significantly less with mathematical achievement than symbolic number skills and that various aspects of language relate differently to mathematical outcomes. We observed differential predictive patterns for arithmetic and word problems, and these patterns only partly supported the theory of three pathways—quantitative, linguistic, and spatial—for mathematical skills. Concurrently, nonsymbolic number and phonological skills were weak but exclusive predictors of arithmetic skills, whereas nonverbal intelligence quotient (IQ) predicted word problems only. Only symbolic number skills predicted both arithmetic and word problems concurrently. Longitudinally, symbolic number skills, spatial ability, and nonverbal IQ predicted both arithmetic and word problems, whereas language comprehension was important for word problem solving only. As in the concurrent data, nonsymbolic number skill was a weak longitudinal predictor of arithmetic skills. We conclude that the candidates to target in intervention studies are symbolic number skills and language comprehension. It is uncertain whether the two other important predictors, nonverbal IQ and spatial skills, are actually malleable.

• Grande, German; Diamanti, Vassiliki; Protopapas, Athanassios; Melby-Lervåg, Monica & Lervåg, Arne (2024). The development of morphological awareness and vocabulary: What influences what? Applied Psycholinguistics. ISSN 0142-7164. doi: 10.1017/S0142716424000213. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The awareness of words’ morphological structure has been thought to allow generalizing meaning to other, similarly constructed words. Conversely, a large vocabulary is thought to facilitate the recognition of words’ morphological regularities, thereby contributing to morphological awareness. For this reason, morphological awareness and vocabulary have been suggested to be reciprocally associated across development. We followed 242 (girls = 119) Norwegian preschoolers (Mage = 5.5 years) from preschool through Grade 2 and examined the cross-lagged relations between morphological awareness (inflections and derivations) and vocabulary (receptive and expressive). Our results confirm that the traditional cross-lagged panel model shows significant cross-lagged relations between morphological awareness and vocabulary, as previous studies have shown. However, no cross-lagged relations were found when we accounted for longitudinal measured stability through a cross-lagged panel model with lag-2 paths or unmeasured stability through the random intercept cross-lagged panel model. We found that approximately 50% of the variation in morphology and vocabulary was due to highly stable and invariant factors across grades. We discuss how the significant cross-lagged relations found in previous studies could have been due to their not accounting for the right type of stability when using longitudinal panel data.

• Hoff, David Armas; Amland, Tonje; Melby-Lervåg, Monica; Lervåg, Arne & Protopapas, Athanassios (2023). Early rapid naming longitudinally predicts shared variance in reading and arithmetic fluency. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. ISSN 0022-0965. 231. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105656. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  A number of cognitive factors have been suggested to underlie development in reading and arithmetic skills. Although the two domains are strongly linked, only a few studies have investigated the processes that are shared between them during the early school years. Rapid automatized naming (RAN) has been identified as a strong predictor of a common fluency factor in reading and arithmetic. In the current study with 232 Norwegian children, we examined how RAN in preschool and Grade 1 relates to the shared and nonshared variance in arithmetic fluency and reading fluency in Grade 3. Furthermore, we examined whether related processing skills (phoneme awareness, working memory, speed of processing, and symbol knowledge) can account for the relationship between RAN and shared fluency—or if they predict variance that is unique to each domain. Our results show that RAN in both preschool and Grade 1 is a strong predictor of shared variance between reading fluency and arithmetic fluency measured several years later, whereas other predictors mainly relate to the nonshared parts of variance in the fluency outcomes. That is, control variables with the theoretical potential to explain some of RAN’s relation to the overlap between reading and arithmetic fluency do not in fact account for this relationship. Our findings provide a starting point for future investigations of the mechanisms of rapid naming.

• Hagen, Åste Mjelve; Rogde, Kristin; Lervåg, Arne; Melby-Lervåg, Monica & Norbury, Courtenay (2023). Long-term prognosis of low language proficiency in children. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2023(1). doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD015268. Full text in Research Archive
• Ehm, Jan-Henning; Schmitterer, Alexandra M.A.; Nagler, Telse & Lervåg, Arne (2023). The Underlying Components of Growth in Decoding and Reading Comprehension: Findings from a 5-Year Longitudinal Study of German-Speaking Children. Scientific Studies of Reading. ISSN 1088-8438. doi: 10.1080/10888438.2022.2164199. Full text in Research Archive
• Donolato, Enrica; Toffalini, Enrico; Rogde, Kristin; Nordahl-Hansen, Anders; Lervåg, Arne & Norbury, Courtenay Frazier [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2023). Oral language interventions can improve language outcomes in children with neurodevelopmental disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Campbell Systematic Reviews. 19(4), p. 1–48. doi: 10.1002/cl2.1368. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Background Young people who fail to develop language as expected face significant challenges in all aspects of life. Unfortunately, language disorders are common, either as a distinct condition (e.g., Developmental Language Disorder) or as a part of another neurodevelopmental condition (e.g., autism). Finding ways to attenuate language problems through intervention has the potential to yield great benefits not only for the individual but also for society as a whole. Objectives This meta-analytic review examined the effect of oral language interventions for children with neurodevelopmental disorders. Search Methods The last electronic search was conducted in April 2022. Selection Criteria Intervention studies had to target language skills for children from 2 to 18 years of age with Developmental Language Disorder, autism, intellectual disability, Down syndrome, Fragile X syndrome, and Williams syndrome in randomised controlled trials or quasi-experimental designs. Control groups had to include business-as-usual, waiting list, passive or active conditions. However, we excluded studies in which the active control group received a different type, delivery, or dosage of another language intervention. Eligible interventions implemented explicit and structured activities (i.e., explicit instruction of vocabulary, narrative structure or grammatical rules) and/or implicit and broad activities (i.e., shared book reading, general language stimulation). The intervention studies had to assess language skills in receptive and/or expressive modalities. Data Collection and Analysis The search provided 8195 records after deduplication. Records were screened by title and abstract, leading to full-text examinations of 448 records. We performed Correlated and Hierarchical Effects models and ran a retrospective power analysis via simulation. Publication bias was assessed via p-curve and precision-effect estimate. Main Results We examined 38 studies, with 46 group comparisons and 108 effects comparing pre-/post-tests and eight studies, with 12 group comparisons and 21 effects at follow-up. The results showed a mean effect size of d = 0.27 at the post-test and d = 0.18 at follow-up. However, there was evidence of publication bias and overestimation of the mean effects. Effects from the meta-analysis were significantly related to these elements: (1) receptive vocabulary and omnibus receptive measures showed smaller effect sizes relative to expressive vocabulary, grammar, expressive and receptive discourse, and omnibus expressive tests; and (2) the length of the intervention, where longer sessions conducted over a longer period of time were more beneficial than brief sessions and short-term interventions. Neither moderators concerning participants’ characteristics (children's diagnosis, diagnostic status, age, sex, and non-verbal cognitive ability and severity of language impairment), nor those regarding of the treatment components and implementation of the language interventions (intervention content, setting, delivery agent, session structure of the intervention or total number of sessions) reached significance. The same occurred to indicators of study quality. The risk of bias assessment showed that reporting quality for the studies examined in the review was poor. Authors’ Conclusions In sum, the current evidence base is promising but inconclusive. Pre-registration and replication of more robust and adequately powered trials, which include a wider range of diagnostic conditions, together with more long-term follow-up comparisons, are needed to drive evidence-based practice and policy.

• Lervåg, Arne & Melby-Lervåg, Monica (2022). Modeling the Development of Reading Comprehension. In Snowling, Margaret J.; Hulme, Charles & Nation, Kate (Ed.), The Science of Reading: A Handbook (Wiley Blackwell Handbooks of Developmental Psychology) 2nd Edition. Wiley-Blackwell. ISSN 9781119705093. p. 280–297. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  A skilled reader can derive the meaning from a printed text rapidly and effortlessly. Becoming a skilled reader takes time and practice and is one of the main goals of primary school education. Since the previous edition of this book in 2005, research in this area has flourished and there are now many longitudinal studies examining how reading comprehension develops. This chapter will focus on what we know about the development of reading comprehension in the early school years, with a particular emphasis on understanding causal processes.

• Lervåg, Arne & Melby-Lervåg, Monica (2022). Early prediction of learning outcomes in reading. In Skeide, Michael A. (Eds.), he Cambridge Handbook of Dyslexia and Dyscalculia (Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology). Cambridge University Press. ISSN 9781108973595. p. 305–317. doi: 10.1017/9781108973595.024. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This chapter focuses on the processes involved in the development of children’s decoding skills: the ability to translate printed words into a speech code, typically assessed by the accuracy and speed of reading aloud. If children struggle in developing this ability, they are often characterized as having dyslexia, but since decoding skills are normally distributed in the population, the cut-off for this diagnosis is somewhat arbitrary (Melby-Lervåg et al. 2012). During the first two years of school, the main aim for children is to develop accurate and fluent early reading abilities that will lay the foundation for the main goal of reading – to be able to extract meaning from text. Thus, though insufficient by itself, efficient word reading is, in turn, a necessary condition for the development of reading comprehension. Research on the foundations of learning to read has burgeoned in the last twenty-five years, with important theoretical and practical consequences.

• West, Gillian; Lervåg, Arne; Snowling, Margaret J.; Buchanan-Worster, Elizabeth; Duta, Mihaela & Hulme, Charles (2022). Early language intervention improves behavioral adjustment in school: Evidence from a cluster randomized trial. Journal of School Psychology. ISSN 0022-4405. 92, p. 334–345. doi: 10.1016/j.jsp.2022.04.006. Full text in Research Archive
• Dolean, Dacian; Lervåg, Arne; Visu-Petra, Laura & Melby-Lervåg, Monica (2021). Language skills, and not executive functions, predict the development of reading comprehension of early readers: evidence from an orthographically transparent language. Reading and writing. ISSN 0922-4777. doi: 10.1007/s11145-020-10107-4. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Abstract The simple view of reading proposes that the development of reading comprehension in early elementary school is best predicted by children’s fluent decoding and oral language skills. Recent studies challenge this view and suggest that executive functions should also be included in this theoretical model; however, the empirical evidence is not strong enough to clearly support or refute this hypothesis. In this short-term longitudinal study, we used latent variables to test whether executive functions have direct effects on the development of reading comprehension in 184 Romanian second graders, beyond fluent decoding and oral language skills. The results indicated that the initial stages of reading comprehension were associated with executive functions, but only the language skills could independently predict the development of reading comprehension. Our findings show that executive functions do not have a significant direct effect on the development of reading comprehension in early readers beyond fluent decoding and oral language skills in languages with transparent orthography. The results also suggest that once children learn to decode well, their language skills (and not their executive functions) have a strong effect on the development of reading comprehension. Therefore, reading interventions in elementary school should stress on the development of oral language skills.

• West, Gillian; Snowling, Margaret J.; Lervåg, Arne; Buchanan-Worster, Elizabeth; Duta, Mihaela & Hall, Alexandra [Show all 8 contributors for this article] (2021). Early language screening and intervention can be delivered successfully at scale: evidence from a cluste rrandomized controlled trial. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. ISSN 0021-9630. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.13415. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Background It is well established that oral language skills provide a critical foundation for formal education. This study evaluated the effectiveness of the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) programme in ameliorating language difficulties in the first year of school when delivered at scale. Methods We conducted a cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) in 193 primary schools (containing 238 Reception classrooms). Schools were randomly allocated to either a 20-week oral language intervention or a business-as-usual control group. All classes (N = 5,879 children) in participating schools were screened by school staff using an automated App to assess children’s oral language skills. Screening identified 1,173 children as eligible for language intervention: schools containing 571 of these children were allocated to the control group and 569 to the intervention group. Results Children receiving the NELI programme made significantly larger gains than the business-as-usual control group on a latent variable reflecting standardized measures of language ability (d = .26) and on the school-administered automated assessment of receptive and expressive language skills (d = .32). The effects of intervention did not vary as a function of home language background or gender. Conclusions This study provides strong evidence for the effectiveness of a school-based language intervention programme (NELI) delivered at scale. These findings demonstrate that language difficulties can be identified by school-based testing and ameliorated by a TA delivered intervention; this has important implications for educational and social policy.

• Thurmann-Moe, Anne C; Melby-Lervåg, Monica & Lervåg, Arne (2021). The impact of articulatory consciousness training on reading and spelling literacy in students with severe dyslexia: an experimental single case study. Annals of Dyslexia. ISSN 0736-9387. doi: 10.1007/s11881-021-00225-1. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Abstract This study evaluates the effect of an intervention whose aim is to make articulatory consciousness a tool in decoding and spelling. The sample comprises 11 students with severe dyslexia (2 SD below the mean pseudoword scores), and the intervention programme consists of 32 individual sessions over 8 weeks. The study applies a multiple baseline/probe design with five baseline tests that correspond to a control condition, eight tests during the intervention and five post-intervention tests. On average, the results show significant improvement in all reading and spelling outcomes. However, there were also significant effects on an irrelevant control task (the pegboard test), perhaps indicating testing effects on the dependent variables, making it difficult to draw firm conclusions from the study. Consequently, testing the intervention in randomised trials of children with severe dyslexia is recommended to draw more firm conclusions about its efficacy for this group.

• Rogde, Kristin; Hagen, Åste Mjelve; Lervåg, Arne & Melby-Lervåg, Monica (2021). Improvement in oral language interventions: Differences and relation between effects on treatment-inherent measures and effects on standardized tests. Nordic Journal of Literacy Research. 7(2), p. 1–18. doi: 10.23865/njlr.v7.2814. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Whether the effects of an oral-language intervention is tested with measures of trained vocabulary (treatment-inherent tests) or standardized measures (treatment-independent tests) can have consequences for the mean effect size in meta-analyses. Moreover, based on a theory of transfer effects, effects on the trained words could serve as an index of how much benefit is gained by children from the intervention. We present a meta-analysis that assesses the differences and relation between the intervention effects of these two types of outcomes, trained vocabulary and standardized vocabulary tests. The results show large effects on trained vocabulary, limited effects on standardized measures, and no clear relation between the two. The moderator analysis indicates that less instruction time is associated with larger effect sizes on trained vocabulary but that trained vocabulary is not a predictor of either standardized expressive or receptive vocabulary. Thus, in interventions and meta-analyses, it is important to distinguish between effects on trained vocabulary and standardized tests, and trained vocabulary effects does not necessarily transfer to standardized measures. This indicates that effects on trained vocabulary outcomes provide limited information when evaluating language interventions.

• Thurmann-Moe, Anne C; Melby-Lervåg, Monica & Lervåg, Arne (2021). Effects of Articulatory Consciousness Training in First Graders with a Reading Delay: A Randomised Control Trial. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research. ISSN 0031-3831. p. 1–18. doi: 10.1080/00313831.2020.1869823. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This paper describes a randomised control trial (RCT) of a small group intervention targeting articulatory consciousness in first graders with a reading delay (control condition: n = 57, intervention condition: n = 64). The programme in the intervention condition consisted of basic decoding and spelling tasks using articulatory cards to symbolise speech sounds. Training took place four times per week for five weeks. The control condition received “business as usual”. The results show that the children in the intervention condition learned to use the articulatory symbols, but there were no effects of the intervention on reading and phonological awareness measures. Also, there was no relationship shown between initial phonological awareness skills and gains, or lack thereof, from the intervention.

• Amland, Tonje; Lervåg, Arne & Melby-Lervåg, Monica (2021). Comorbidity Between Math and Reading Problems: Is Phonological Processing a Mutual Factor? Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 14. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2020.577304. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  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.

• Hulme, Charles; Snowling, Margaret J.; West, Gillian; Lervåg, Arne & Melby-Lervåg, Monica (2020). Children’s Language Skills Can Be Improved: Lessons From Psychological Science for Educational Policy. Current Directions in Psychological Science. ISSN 0963-7214. 29(4), p. 372–377. doi: 10.1177/0963721420923684. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Oral language is crucial for social interaction and for learning in the classroom; it also provides the foundation for reading comprehension. It follows that children with language difficulties are at high risk of educational failure. Recently, a number of studies have demonstrated that it is possible to produce small but significant improvements in children’s oral language through targeted language interventions ( d = 0.16) and, furthermore, that studies with high-quality implementation show larger effects ( d = 0.24). There is also evidence that effects of language intervention can generalize to produce improvements in reading comprehension. Although further research examining the long-term effects of language interventions are needed, current findings have important implications for educational policy and practice.

View all works in NVA

• Donolato, Enrica; Wahl, Hedda Novang; Melby-Lervåg, Monica & Lervåg, Arne (2026). Math anxiety and math skills development in children: a longitudinal study on early predictors. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Introduction. Math anxiety and math skills are closely intertwined, yet their early predictors in childhood remain poorly understood. Previous research has identified cognitive and affective predictors of math performance, including intelligence and working memory (Amland et al., 2025), knowledge of mathematical symbols (Szczygieł et al., 2024), and general and math anxiety (Barroso et al., 2021; Caviola et al., 2022). Similarly, there is evidence that math anxiety is shaped by general anxiety (Szczygieł et al., 2024; Wang et al., 2014), working memory (Pellizzoni et al., 2022), and knowledge of mathematical symbols (Szczygieł et al., 2024). Despite extensive correlational evidence, few longitudinal studies have systematically examined cognitive and affective predictors of math anxiety and math skills in school-age children. Research Aims. The goal of this study is to examine children’s math anxiety and math skills development and identify their cognitive and affective predictors in a sample of children followed up from kindergarten to primary school. Materials and Methods. The sample consisted of 259 children (52% boys; M age = 5.5 years at project onset). At the first time point, during their final year of preschool, children completed assessments of cognitive abilities, numeracy skills, and general anxiety. From Grade 3 to Grade 6, children were assessed annually on math anxiety (Achievement Emotions Questionnaire–Math Anxiety; AEQ-MA), arithmetic fluency (Test of Basic Arithmetic and Numeracy Skills; TOBANS) and a mathematical reasoning (Word Problems subtest of the WISC-IV). Assessments were administrated individually in sessions of approximately 60 minutes during kindergarten or school hours. Results. Growth models are being used to examine math anxiety and math skills and to test early predictors of individual differences in growth. Final results from ongoing analyses will clarify the extent to which early cognitive, numeracy and affective factors contribute to changes in math anxiety and math skills in primary school. Discussion. These findings are expected to contribute to a better understanding of early factors that may place children at risk for unfavourable trajectories in developing math anxiety or poor math skills. The study has implications for early identification, highlighting how targeting foundational skills may support both math skills and mitigate math anxiety. Findings will further inform how these insights can be translated into educational practices to enhance young students’ successful math learning.

• Donolato, Enrica; Masi, Alice; Caviola, Sara; Melby-Lervåg, Monica & Lervåg, Arne (2023). Math-attitudes intervention programs for school-age students: A meta-analysis and overview of the literature. Full text in Research Archive
• Melby-Lervåg, Monica; Amland, Tonje; Grande, German; Scherer, Ronny & Lervåg, Arne (2023). Does language underlie mathematical skill development? A systematic review and meta-analysis of concurrent and longitudinal predictors. Full text in Research Archive
• Lervåg, Arne (2021). Editorial: Is there a core deficit in specific learning disabilities? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. ISSN 0021-9630. 62(6), p. 677–679. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.13434. Full text in Research Archive
• Lervåg, Arne (2020). Some roads less travelled—different routes to understanding the causes of child psychopathology. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. ISSN 0021-9630. 61(6), p. 625–627. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.13274. Full text in Research Archive

View all works in NVA