Every child counts:  Enhancing the literacy and numeracy of poor children

With Esther Duflo and Stanislas Dehaene, I will design a field experiment to implement and evaluate two sets of games for poor children to play in preschools, exercising and training basic skills in mathematics and reading. The proposal builds on past research with Duflo in India. In one completed field experiment, children in 214 preschool classrooms were randomized to receive math games (based on basic research on numerical and spatial cognition), games with the same structure but with social content (active control), or the regular preschool curriculum (no-treatment control). All children were assessed on school math abilities before and at three time points after the 4-month intervention. Relative to both control conditions, children who played the math games showed enduring gains in numerical and geometrical abilities. A second, ongoing field experiment, designed with Duflo and with input from Stanislas Dehaene, extends our work by introducing symbolic material into the math games. We will develop games aimed to enhance the readiness of poor preschool children for learning to read. I also work with Emmanuel Dupoux and Pierre Jacob to develop interventions to enhance poor children's aptitude and motivation to learn from literate and numerate adults. Thus I aim to contribute to leverage basic research in cognitive science and to improve the education of all children, especially the poor.