Hutchinson, E., Parkmore Nursery School, South Africa; Pournara, C., University of Witwatersrand, South Africa
This study explored the performance of eight pre-school children on a range of tasks involving repeat patterns. Task-based interviews were conducted where children were required to produce their own pattern, to copy and extend a given pattern, and to complete missing parts of a pattern. The findings show that most children were able to copy and extend a repeat pattern, but few could produce their own repeat pattern. While most children tended to focus on 'what comes next', some children paid attention to pattern structure, but were not able to isolate the pattern element. Evidence is provided of inconsistent performance by individual children across tasks, which provides new insights into children's developing sense of repeat patterns. © 2013 © 2013 The University of Johannesburg.
