The effect of early number program on number concept development of 48-60 months children

This research was conducted to determine the effect of Early Number Program on number concept development of 48-60 months children. The population of this research was composed of 48-60 months children, who were not applied any special program related to numbers, and had a normal development level, and continued their education in independent pre-schools which were affiliated to the Ministry of National Education, in 2016-2017 academic year, in City center county Menteşe, in Muğla City. The sample of this research was composed of totally 78 children as 40 of them were experiment group while 38 of them were control group. Pre-test, post-test and follow-up test controlled group semi-experimental texture were used in the research. Early Numeracy Assessment Scale that was developed by VanDerHeyden (2008) and localized to Turkish by Yılmaz (2015), and Counting Development Assessment Tool that was developed by Olgun, Fidan and Babacan Özer (2013) were used in this research. "Early Number Program" had been applied to the children in experiment group for 12 weeks. Early Numeracy Assessment Scale and Counting Development Assessment Tool were applied to experiment and control groups at two different times as pre-test and post-test. Additionally, the tests were re-applied to the children in experiment group as follow-up test after 6 weeks following the last test. T-test in Dependent and Independent Groups was used in data analysis. As a result of the research, a statistically meaningful difference was determined in favor of the children in experiment group in terms of the mean scores of last test related to total and sublevels of Early Numeracy Assessment Scale and last test scores in Counting Development Assessment Tool (p<0.05). KEYWORDS: Pre-school Education, Numeracy Skills, Number Concept,Number Development.