Frequency of Home Numeracy Activities Is Differentially Related to Basic Number Processing and Calculation Skills in Kindergartners

Abstract

Home numeracy has been shown to play an important role in children’s mathematical performance. However, findings are inconsistent as to which home numeracy activities are related to which mathematical skills. The present study disentangled between various mathematical abilities that were previously masked by the use of composite scores of mathematical achievement. Our aim was to shed light on the specific associations between home numeracy and various mathematical abilities. The relationships between kindergartners’ home numeracy activities, their basic number processing and calculation skills were investigated. Participants were 128 kindergartners (Mage = 5.43 years, SD = 0.29, range: 4.88–6.02 years) and their parents. The children completed non-symbolic and symbolic comparison tasks, non-symbolic and symbolic number line estimation tasks, mapping tasks (enumeration and connecting), and two calculation tasks. Their parents completed a home numeracy questionnaire. Results indicated small but significant associations between formal home numeracy activities that involved more explicit teaching efforts (i.e., identifying numerals, counting) and children’s enumeration skills. There was no correlation between formal home numeracy activities and non-symbolic number processing. Informal home numeracy activities that involved more implicit teaching attempts, such as “playing games” and “using numbers in daily life,” were (weakly) correlated with calculation and symbolic number line estimation, respectively. The present findings suggest that disentangling between various basic number processing and calculation skills in children might unravel specific relations with both formal and informal home numeracy activities. This might explain earlier reported contradictory findings on the association between home numeracy and mathematical abilities.

Children’s Home Numeracy Environment Predicts Growth of their Early Mathematical Skills in Kindergarten

“…In terms of formal activities, Thompson, Napoli, and Purpura (2017) found that home activities that are explicitly centered on math, such as counting objects, printing numbers, or using number activity books, predicted the early numeracy skills of preschoolers. Similarly, others have found that the frequency of formal numeracy activities predicted children's enumeration skills (Mutaf Yıldız, Sasanguie, De Smedt, & Reynvoet, 2018) and arithmetic skills (Vasilyeva, Laski, Veraksa, Weber, & Bukhalenkova, 2018). Operational numeracy activities predicted symbolic number knowledge for prekindergarten (Susperreguy et al, 2018) and kindergarten children (Skwarchuk et al, 2014).…”

“…Informal activities (i.e., parents' knowledge of number-related games) also had direct effects on nonsymbolic comparison and arithmetic fluency at the end of kindergarten. Prior studies of home numeracy activities and children's performance found that informal and formal activities were differentially related to children's specific numeracy outcomes (Mutaf Yıldız et al, 2018;Skwarchuk et al, 2014). For example, Skwarchuk et al (2014) found that informal activities at age 4 were related to children's nonsymbolic arithmetic skills at age 5, whereas formal activities at age 4 were related to children's knowledge of written digits at age 5.…”

“…This study extends prior work and addresses many of the concerns about variability in the field outlined by Elliott and Bachman (2017) by examining longitudinal relations between numeracy activities at home and growth of kindergarteners' mathematical skills with a large group of children from a non-Westernized country (Chile) as they transition from prekindergarten to kindergarten. Moreover, in the present research, we explored the relations between different aspects of the HNE (i.e., formal and informal) and several different early math skills (Mutaf Yıldız et al, 2018), thereby addressing the limitations of using monolithic assessments of both children's experiences and their developing skills.…”

The Role of Approximate Number System in Different Mathematics Skills Across Grades

“…Second, we did not assess the role of home numeracy environment in our study. Previous studies have found that home numeracy environment is an important predictor of children’s mathematics achievement (e.g., Manolitsis et al, 2013 ; Deng et al, 2015 ), and the mathematics activities at home may also promote children’s non-symbolic and symbolic estimation (e.g., Mutaf-Yildiz et al, 2018 ). Future studies should examine the effects of home numeracy environment on ANS acuity and mathematics skills.…”

Validating a Home Numeracy Questionnaire in Ecuador Using Factor Analysis

“…Such studies on the ecological and cross-cultural validity of the instrument, complemented with qualitative methodologies such as in-depth interviews or observations (e.g., Susperreguy & Davis-Kean, 2016), are an important building block for addressing a timely topic within early mathematics education, namely the contribution of home numeracy activities and specific mathematical competencies (such as basic number processing and calculation skills). By focusing on specific mathematical abilities instead of a general score of mathematics achievement, studies can give an explanation for the contradictory findings in the literature on the association between children's home numeracy and mathematical abilities (Mutaf, Sasanguie, De Smedt, & Reynvoet, 2018). Moreover, future research should include control variables that have been shown to play a role in the relation between home numeracy and mathematics achievement, such as children's age (see for example .…”