Counting the benefits of new math app

Published in 2015.  A new iPad app designed to bring mathematics into children’s homes through story time has led to improvements in achievement, according to new research published in Science. The results were particularly significant for children whose parents were anxious about the subject. In Chicago, 587 families with a child aged 6 or 7 were recruited into the study. All were given an iPad mini and asked to use an app called Bedtime Learning Together (BLT) several times a week over the course of a school year.

Of the families in the project, 420 were randomly assigned to use a mathematics version of the app, and 167 to a control group using a reading version. In each case, children and their parents were asked to read passages and answer corresponding questions that ranged in difficulty. Families could answer as many questions as they wanted during each interaction with the app.