Engaging caregivers and children in picture books: A family-implemented mathematical language intervention.

Abstract

The goal of this study was to evaluate immediate and delayed effects of a caregiver-implemented picture book intervention to support children's mathematical language and numeracy skills. Eightyfour 3-to 5-year-olds (M age = 4.14) were randomly assigned to intervention (n = 40) or active control (n = 44) conditions. Participants in the intervention condition received three researcher-designed picture books with embedded mathematical language content. The active control group received similar books without mathematical language content. All families were asked to read each book a total of four times over 4 weeks (a total of 12 reading sessions). Children were pretested, posttested, and delayed (8 weeks) posttested on mathematical language and numeracy. The intervention resulted in significant positive effects on mathematical language and numeracy at the posttest. At delayed posttest, the mathematical language effects were not statistically significant, but the numeracy effects persisted. However, when only examining the quantitative language items that aligned with the intervention, the effects of the intervention were significant at both immediate and delayed posttests. Findings suggest picture book interventions can have positive impacts on children's early skills.Educational Impact and Implications Statement Supporting children's mathematical language and numeracy development is important for their success in later mathematics. The findings from this study demonstrate that caregivers reading a set of books with embedded mathematical language to their children over the course of 4 weeks can have strong and persistent effects on children's mathematical language and numeracy skills.

The effects of language instruction on math development

“…A similar study randomly assigned typically developing preschool‐aged U.S. English‐speaking children (most of whom were White) and their family caregivers (nearly all of whom were college‐educated mothers) to read and discuss either three math (intervention) or nonmath (control) storybooks (Purpura et al, 2021). Participants in the intervention condition received three researcher‐developed books featuring 17 core (e.g., more, different, few ) and story‐specific (e.g., just enough ) math terms.…”

“…As the developmental links between language and math have become clearer, a growing body of math language interventions has been developed and rigorously tested. In this literature, compelling evidence suggests that certain forms of language instruction can strengthen young children’s number knowledge (Gibson et al, 2020; Purpura et al, 2021) and performance in word‐problem solving (Fuchs et al, 2021). But currently, there is no evidence that standalone or embedded language instruction can improve children’s arithmetic performance (Hassinger‐Das et al, 2015; Jordan et al, 2012; Powell & Driver, 2015).…”

“…Indeed, verbally counting and labeling object sets supports the development of cardinal knowledge (Gibson et al, 2020). Exposing children to terms used to describe imprecise quantities (e.g., few) and relations (e.g., different) also supports growth in number knowledge (Purpura et al, 2021). Moreover, these practices can be feasibly embedded within naturally occurring home and school activities (e.g., shared reading, playing, cooking, grocery shopping; see Elliott & Bachman, 2018).…”

Numerical development in preschool: Examining potential mediators of children’s approximate number system and mathematics achievement.

“…When considering early childhood instruction, this finding suggests that opportunities to support preschoolers in developing their mathematical language skills may provide benefits. For example, brief storybook interventions have been found to improve children's mathematical language (Purpura et al, 2021). Indeed, recent experimental studies have shown that reading interventions focusing on spatial and numerical words (e.g., more, less, near, far) can lead to improvements in both children's mathematical language and mathematics achievement (Purpura et al, 2021;Hassinger-Das et al, 2015;Purpura et al, 2016).…”

“…For example, brief storybook interventions have been found to improve children's mathematical language (Purpura et al, 2021). Indeed, recent experimental studies have shown that reading interventions focusing on spatial and numerical words (e.g., more, less, near, far) can lead to improvements in both children's mathematical language and mathematics achievement (Purpura et al, 2021;Hassinger-Das et al, 2015;Purpura et al, 2016). This contrasts with the mixed findings of studies to promote children's mathematics achievement by improving their ANS (Honoré & Noël, 2016;Park et al, 2016;Wang et al, 2020).…”