[SUMMARY] The purpose of this study is to give an overview of studies on early childhood patterns and, as a result, to show future challenges in this field of study. We searched the literature on mathematics education in early childhood from 2012 to 2020. Specifically, we search mainly seventeen kinds of journal articles on mathematics education and early childhood education, as well as book chapters and articles in proceedings of the conferences of mathematics education, collect relevant documents, reviewed and summarized them. As a result, the importance of research on pattern recognition in the context of early childhood became clear, and the main theme was to clarify the effect of pattern recognition on the mathematical ability. Although the relationship with various mathematical abilities has been shown, the effect in the actual school educational situation has not yet been clarified because it is difficult to continue long-term research and elucidate the basis of its consequence. Research on how to effectively associate and integrate patterning, spatial skills, and structural thinking with mathematics education is expected in the future.