PASS Processes and Early Mathematics Skills in Dutch and Italian Kindergartners

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relation between early mathematical skills and cognitive processing abilities for two samples of children in Italy (N = 40) and the Netherlands (N = 59) who completed both a cognitive test that measures Planning, Attention, Simultaneous, and Successive (PASS) processing and an early mathematical skills test. Correlations between the PASS processes as measured by the Cognitive Assessment System and math tasks showed that Planning and Simultaneous processing were most related to early math skills. Simultaneous processing was most related to the Piagetian tasks and Planning to the counting tasks. Although some differences were found between the Italian and Dutch group on their scores on both tests, the relations between PASS processes and early math skills were comparable for both groups. The results may have implications for early identification of math learning difficulties.