過去許多文獻與國際評比都非常肯定臺灣學童的數學表現，足以支持臺灣學童的數學能力非常傑出。然而，上述文獻與國際評比主要是針對國小以上的學童，而關於學齡前幼兒階段的數學表現，則沒有相關的評比，而且相關文獻上也很少研究幼兒數學能力。所以，本研究的目的將探討臺灣學齡前幼兒在基本數能力的表現，並檢視臺灣兒童的數學能力是否在學前階段已經有傑出的表現。本研究對象為南臺灣一所私立幼兒園三到五歲之幼兒，每個年齡各十位，共三十人，本研究使用的測驗工具為「幼兒數學能力測驗(TEMA)」，並將臺灣兒童的表現對照TEMA的常模。研究結果發現臺灣學齡前兒童在所有的數學能力均優於美國兒童，不管是在著重在記憶與精熟的口頭計數，或是著重在概念理解的數算能力，甚至是著重在問題解決的運算能力。此外，本研究與過去的研究（Miura & Okamoto, 1989）均支持東亞的計數系統深深影響幼兒的口頭計數表現。

Previous studies consistently documented Taiwanese students' superior mathematics performance. However, little has been done on when the differences in mathematical competence between Taiwanese and U.S. Chinese children began to emerge. The purpose of this study was to examine Taiwanese young children's mathematics performance and to compare their performance to a norm based on a huge study conducted in U. S. Thirty 3- to 5-year-old children participated in this study. TEMA (The Test of Early Mathematics Ability) was used. Results showed that Taiwanese young children already outperformed U.S. children in nearly all aspects, including tasks involved the oral counting, tasks involved the conceptual understanding of numbers, and tasks involved the operations such as addition and subtraction. In addition, we found that the base-10 structure of number names favored Taiwanese young children's mathematics learning.