Parent-Child Talk about Early Numeracy

The goal of the study was to examine how the type of informal number activity in which parents and their preschoolers engage and parents’ math-related beliefs relate to parent-child exploration of an advanced early number concept. Parents and their preschoolers (n = 46) engaged in a videotaped play session and parents were surveyed about their math-related beliefs. The findings indicate that the type of informal number activity that parents chose to play with their children predicted how frequently they explored an advanced early number concept with them. Additionally, some but not all parents’ math-related beliefs were related to parent-child number talk. These results suggest that identifying games that facilitate specific number concepts may be a good way for researchers to help parents and children explore more advanced early number concepts frequently. The results also highlight the need for additional research on the role of parents’ math-related beliefs in their support of their children’s early learning and school readiness

Connecting the dots: Examining the role of parental beliefs and preschoolers’ affect and engagement in predicting parent-child number exploration during a meaningful math experience

The current study examined the frequency and quality of how 3- to 4-year-old children and their parents explore the relations between symbolic and non-symbolic quantities in the context of a playful math experience, as well as the role of both parent and child factors in this exploration. Preschool children’s numerical knowledge was assessed while parents completed a survey about the number-related experiences they share with their children at home, and their math-related beliefs. Parent-child dyads were then videotaped playing a modified version of the card game War. Results suggest that parents and children explored quantity explicitly on only half of the cards and card pairs played, and dyads of young children and those with lower number knowledge tended to be most explicit in their quantity exploration. Dyads with older children, on the other hand, often completed their turns without discussing the numbers at all, likely because they were knowledgeable enough about numbers that they could move through the game with ease. However, when dyads did explore the quantities explicitly, they focused on identifying numbers symbolically, used non-symbolic card information interchangeably with symbolic information to make the quantity comparison judgments, and in some instances, emphasized the connection between the symbolic and non-symbolic number representations on the cards. Parents reported that math experiences such as card game play and quantity comparison occurred relatively infrequently at home compared to activities geared towards more foundational practice of number, such as counting out loud and naming numbers. However, parental beliefs were important in predicting both the frequency of at-home math engagement as well as the quality of these experiences. In particular, parents’ specific beliefs about their children’s abilities and interests were associated with the frequency of home math activities, while parents’ math-related ability beliefs and values along with children’s engagement in the card game were associated with the quality of dyads’ number exploration during the card game. Taken together, these findings suggest that card games can be an engaging context for parent-preschooler exploration of numbers in multiple representations, and suggests that parents’ beliefs and children’s level of engagement are important predictors of this exploration

Data on preschool children׳s math, patterning, and spatial knowledge

Initial participants were 79 children who were recruited from six preschool programs in the U.S. Full assessment data was available for 73 children (average age of 4 years 7 months), including demographic data (gender, ethnicity, financial need, language(s) spoken at home and special education status). Children׳s math, repeating patterning, spatial and verbal skills were assessed at the beginning of the pre-kindergarten year. Assessments included the brief version of the Research-Based Early Mathematics Assessment, two measures of repeating patterning skills, three measures of spatial skills (the Block Design subtest of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, the Position in Space subtest of the Developmental Test of Visual Perception, and a Corsi Block Tapping Task), the Picture Vocabulary Test from the NIH Toolbox app and a backward letter span task. Near the end of the school year, their math knowledge was re-assessed using the same math measure, as was their memory span (forward and backward digit span task from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children). Findings on the relations between patterning, spatial and math skills are published elsewhere (Rittle-Johnson et al., 2018) [1]

Use them or lose them: Are manipulatives needed to assess numeracy and geometry performance in preschool?

In two studies, we investigated whether using three-dimensional (3D) manipulatives during assessment aided performance on a variety of preschool mathematics tasks compared to pictorial representations. On measures of children\u27s understanding of counting and cardinality (n = 103), there was no difference in performance between manipulatives and pictures, with Bayes factors suggesting moderate evidence in favor of the null hypothesis. On a measure of children\u27s shape identification (n = 93), there was no difference in performance between objects and pictures, with Bayes factors suggesting moderate evidence in favor of the null hypothesis. These results suggest flexibility in the materials that can be used during assessment. Pictures, or 2D renderings of 3D objects, which can be easily printed and reproduced, may be sufficient for assessing counting and shape knowledge without the need for more cumbersome concrete manipulatives

Next Directions in Measurement of the Home Mathematics Environment

This paper synthesizes findings from an international virtual conference, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), focused on the home mathematics environment (HME). In light of inconsistencies and gaps in research investigating relations between the HME and children’s outcomes, the purpose of the conference was to discuss actionable steps and considerations for future work. The conference was composed of international researchers with a wide range of expertise and backgrounds. Presentations and discussions during the conference centered broadly on the need to better operationalize and measure the HME as a construct – focusing on issues related to child, family, and community factors, country and cultural factors, and the cognitive and affective characteristics of caregivers and children. Results of the conference and a subsequent writing workshop include a synthesis of core questions and key considerations for the field of research on the HME. Findings highlight the need for the field at large to use multi-method measurement approaches to capture nuances in the HME, and to do so with increased international and interdisciplinary collaboration, open science practices, and communication among scholars