Numerical Activities and Information Learned at Home Link to the Exact Numeracy Skills in 5–6 Years-Old Children

Benavides-Varela, Silvia; Butterworth, Brian; Burgio, Francesca; Arcara, Giorgio; Lucangeli, Daniela; Semenza, Carlo

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00094

Cited by 52 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…Therefore, it is unlikely that the absence of the relation between the two methods is due to low validity or reliability. Additionally, the children's age in our study was comparable with previous home numeracy studies (e.g., Benavides‐Varela et al ., ; Segers et al ., ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Investigating the relationship between two home numeracy measures: A questionnaire and observations during Lego building and book reading

Yildiz

Sasanguie

Smedt

et al. 2018

British J of Dev Psycho

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Home numeracy has been defined as the parent-child interactions that include experiences with numerical content in daily-life settings. Previous studies have commonly operationalized home numeracy either via questionnaires or via observational methods. These studies have shown that both types of measures are positively related to variability in children's mathematical skills. This study investigated whether these distinctive data collection methods index the same aspect of home numeracy. The frequencies of home numeracy activities and parents' opinions about their children's mathematics education were assessed via a questionnaire. The amount of home numeracy talk was observed via two semi-structured videotaped parent-child activity sessions (Lego building and book reading). Children's mathematical skills were examined with two calculation subtests. We observed that parents' reports and number of observed numeracy interactions were not related to each other. Interestingly, parents' reports of numeracy activities were positively related to children's calculation abilities, whereas the observed home numeracy talk was negatively related to children's calculation abilities. These results indicate that these two methods tap on different aspects of home numeracy. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Home numeracy, that is, parent-child interactions that include experiences with numerical content, is supposed to have a positive impact on calculation or mathematical ability in general. Despite many positive results, some studies have failed to find such an association. Home numeracy has been assessed with questionnaires on the frequency of numerical experiences and observations of parent-child interactions; however, those two measures of home numeracy have never been compared directly. What does this study add? This study assessed home numeracy through questionnaires and observations in the 44 parent-child dyads and showed that home numeracy measures derived from questionnaires and observations are not related. Moreover, the relation between the reported frequency of home numeracy activities and calculation on the one hand, and parent-child number talk (derived from observations) and calculation on the other hand is in opposite directions; the frequency of activities is positively related to calculation performance; and the amount of number talk is negatively related to calculation. This study shows that both measures tap into different aspects of home numeracy and can be an important factor explaining inconsistencies in literature.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Investigating the relationship between two home numeracy measures: A questionnaire and observations during Lego building and book reading

Yildiz

Sasanguie

Smedt

et al. 2018

British J of Dev Psycho

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Previous research has shown that the amount of parental math talk that children are exposed to is related to children's math abilities (Benavides‐Varela et al, ; Elliott, Braham, & Libertus, ; Gunderson & Levine, ; Levine et al, ; Ramani et al, ; Susperreguy & Davis‐Kean, ). These studies found that when parents used more math talk during everyday interactions, the children had better math skills.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Promoting Math Talk in Adult–Child Interactions Through Grocery Store Signs

Hanner

Braham

Elliott

et al. 2019

Mind Brain and Education

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Young children have better math abilities when their parents engage in more math‐related conversations with them. Yet, previous studies have found that math talk occurs only very infrequently in everyday interactions. In the present study, we sought to promote adult–child conversations about math in a naturalistic context using minimal instructions. We observed 179 adult–child dyads while they shopped in grocery stores with signs prompting them to engage in math‐related conversations (math condition), signs prompting them to talk about other topics (general language condition), or without any signs (baseline condition). In the math condition, more adults talked about math compared to the general language or the baseline condition, and this finding could not be explained by demographic characteristics of the dyad or the overall amount of conversations. This study demonstrates that cost‐effective signs placed in everyday contexts can promote math‐related conversations and potentially provide math learning opportunities for children.

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“…Cross-cultural work in European American, Chinese American, and Taiwan Chinese families has found a positive relation between numeracy activities and formal math skills [20–22] (. A recent study found that home activities that encouraged numerical performance predicted performance on tasks measuring the Exact Number System, but not the Approximate Number System [23]. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the Home Math Environment and Its Role in Predicting Parent Report of Children’s Math Skills

2016

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There is a growing literature concerning the role of the home math environment in children’s math development. In this study, we examined the relation between these constructs by specifically addressing three goals. The first goal was to identify the measurement structure of the home math environment through a series of confirmatory factor analyses. The second goal was to examine the role of the home math environment in predicting parent report of children’s math skills. The third goal was to test a series of potential alternative explanations for the relation between the home math environment and parent report of children’s skills, specifically the direct and indirect role of household income, parent math anxiety, and parent math ability as measured by their approximate number system performance. A final sample of 339 parents of children aged 3 through 8 drawn from Mechanical Turk answered a questionnaire online. The best fitting model of the home math environment was a bifactor model with a general factor representing the general home math environment, and three specific factors representing the direct numeracy environment, the indirect numeracy environment, and the spatial environment. When examining the association of the home math environment factors to parent report of child skills, the general home math environment factor and the spatial environment were the only significant predictors. Parents who reported doing more general math activities in the home reported having children with higher math skills, whereas parents who reported doing more spatial activities reported having children with lower math skills.

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Numerical Activities and Information Learned at Home Link to the Exact Numeracy Skills in 5–6 Years-Old Children

Cited by 52 publications

References 63 publications

Investigating the relationship between two home numeracy measures: A questionnaire and observations during Lego building and book reading

Investigating the relationship between two home numeracy measures: A questionnaire and observations during Lego building and book reading

Promoting Math Talk in Adult–Child Interactions Through Grocery Store Signs

Understanding the Home Math Environment and Its Role in Predicting Parent Report of Children’s Math Skills

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