Deal Me in: Playing Cards in the Home to Learn Math

Abstract

Recent meta-analyses have demonstrated a significant association between children’s early math achievement and their experiences with math at home, including their caregivers’ talk about math. However, few studies have investigated the relations between caregiver math talk and children’s learning with experimental designs. Eighty-six children (M = 5.0 years) and their caregivers were randomly assigned to play either a numeracy or a shape card game at home for six weeks. Data were collected on children’s number and shape knowledge and families’ math talk during gameplay. There was substantial participant attrition (42% did not return completed materials), however, both an intent-to-treat analysis of the sample that received study materials and a subgroup analysis of study completers showed that children who played the shape game significantly improved their shape naming and matching skills relative to children who played the number game. Children who played the number game did not significantly improve their numerical skills relative to children who played the shape game. Mathematical talk during gameplay varied between families but was correlated over time within families. Caregivers’ and children’s talk about matching cards by shape or color predicted children’s learning from the shape game. The results suggest that despite receiving uniform instructions and materials, there was significant variability in children’s home math experiences that predicted their learning from the card game.

The benefits of math activities depend on the skills children bring to the table.

“…Our cross-sectional results from Study 1 hint that this might be the case, but explicit experimental testing is required. One previous training study using number card games in the home environment did not find effects of training on children’s number skills (Scalise et al, 2022), but it is unclear the extent to which effects may be moderated by children’s underlying skills. Indeed, our Study 2 results suggest that intervention effects that fail to reach significance may in part be due to variability in who benefits, and a deeper exploration of the skills required may prove fruitful.…”

Exploring effects of an early math intervention: The importance of parent–child interaction

“…The findings of short‐term effects echo those of some successful home training studies that have relied upon parent–child interaction, though they are contrary to others. Using a parent–child card game, Scalise et al (2022) found no effects of randomization to a number game condition as compared to a shape game condition. However, there may be something critical to the inherent embeddedness of a number line in board games or to connecting number words with physical actions (de Vries et al, 2021; Siegler & Ramani, 2009; Whyte & Bull, 2008).…”

“…Effective number game interventions have nearly exclusively taken place in classroom settings and been administered by a trained game partner (i.e., a researcher or paraprofessional; Ramani et al, 2012) with some noted exceptions (cf., Scalise et al, 2022;Sonnenschein et al, 2016). More recent evidence has suggested that games played with parents at home might be less efficacious than those played with a trained partner (Ramani & Scalise, 2020).…”

“…More recent evidence has suggested that games played with parents at home might be less efficacious than those played with a trained partner (Ramani & Scalise, 2020). Interventions modeled after successful board or card game interventions and which are implemented with parents have thus far largely reported null results (in comparison to other, non‐math board or card games; Scalise et al, 2022; Sonnenschein et al, 2016), though there is some evidence that interventions that center parent–child interaction may have auxiliary effects, as by attenuating the effects of math anxiety (Schaeffer et al, 2018). Notably, other parent–child interventions have relied on highly scripted interactions (e.g., Sonnenschein et al, 2016) and have been limited in both the number of participants and the counterfactual condition.…”

Parent-Focused Interventions to Support Children’s Early Math Learning

“…For example, playing two different versions of a commercially available number board game or a color board game did not yield any differences in children's improvements in counting and numeral identification post-intervention (Sonnenschein et al, 2016). Similarly, two studies showed that playing a card game that required number comparisons did not yield any significant improvements in children's numerical knowledge compared to a card game that required shape or color matching (Ramani & Scalise, 2020;Scalise et al, 2022).…”