Here is the latest instalment of our blogs about the Mr Barton Maths Podcast. This blog features Iro Xenidou Dervou from Loughborough University and you can hear the podcast with Craig here or in your usual podcast app.

Iro writes:

I was delighted to talk to Craig, it was a great opportunity to discuss our work into early financial literacy. In the podcast, we spoke about “Arlo’s Adventures”, an innovative comic strip designed to measure young children’s knowledge and understanding of money and finances.

As a cognitive developmental psychologist, I’m endlessly fascinated by what children can do, and often think that they can do much more than what our existing measures are able to show us. Children can really surprise us, and we just need the right tools to capture their capabilities. That’s what Arlo is designed to do! Craig and I discussed studies that I’ve conducted with 4-6 year olds around the UK, with Arlo’s Adventures, and what the findings from Arlo tell us about young children’s (variable!) financial literacy skills. We also discussed how financial literacy and numeracy are related but distinct constructs, the key components of financial literacy at this young age, the factors that might influence it, and what all this means for improving children’s financial understanding.

For any researcher with interests in psychology, development, mathematics or financial education, or any parent who is curious to know what and how their child understands about money, this podcast episode is for you!

Publications associated to Arlo’s Adventures can be found here, and a previous blogpost about Arlo can be found here.

We hope you enjoy listening to this episode. Don’t forget to check out the others in this series too, if you haven’t already.