Shared Book Reading to Promote Math Talk in Parent–Child Dyads in Low-Income Families

Abstract

Young children vary in mathematical skill and knowledge with differences emerging prior to formal schooling (e.g., National Mathematics Advisory Panel, 2008). Children from lower income backgrounds and those with disabilities may especially be at a disadvantage for skill development (e.g., Hojnoski, Caskie, & Miller, 2017; National Mathematics Advisory Panel, 2008). This is evident in research showing that young children of low-income families fall on average 7 months behind their peers in their mathematical knowledge (Starkey, Klein, & Wakeley, 2004). Socioeconomic discrepancies, though not prevalent across all skills, consistently emerge with verbal and more advanced strategies related to counting, comparison, and patterning (e.g., Jordan, Huttenlocher, & Levine, 1994; Sarama & Clements, 2009). Variable exposure to mathematical language and concepts is evident across homes, with parents of middle-and high-income families observed to engage with their children in more complex ways, such as by referencing more sophisticated concepts (Levine, Gunderson, & Huttenlocher, 2011) and setting higher expectations for early learning (DeFlorio & Beliakoff, 2015). Home practices likely contribute to discrepancies in skill and knowledge as increased mathematical interactions between parents and children correspond with higher mathematical achievement (Berkowitz et al., 2015; Susperreguy & Davis-Kean, 2016). Given the importance of a strong foundation in early mathematics (e.g., Duncan et al., 2007) and the importance of the home numeracy environment in children's developing mathematical competencies (e.g., Kleemans, Peeters, Segers, & Verhoeven, 2012; Skwarchuk, Sowinski, & LeFevre, 2014), it is crucial to determine ways to foster numeracy interactions between parents and their children. Support of mathematical interactions can occur within home activities such as shared book reading. A large body of literature recognizes shared book reading as an effective means of increasing child vocabulary and other literacy skills (see Towson, Fettig, Fleury, & Abarca, 2017), though its application to mathematical knowledge and skills has not been fully explored (e.g., Purpura, Napoli, Wehrspann, & Gold, 2017). Dialogic reading (DR) is a method of shared book reading (e.g., Whitehurst et al., 1988) involving mnemonics that aid adults in using general interaction strategies (prompting, evaluating, expanding, and repeating; PEER) 831762T ECXXX10.

Effects of a First‐Grade Mathematics Vocabulary Intervention: A Pilot Study for Students with Mathematics Difficulty

“…Similarly, Hendrix et al. (2019) and Hojnoski et al. (2014) both reported increases in parents’ and children's mathematics talk.…”

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

“…It is possible that children who were exposed to even small amounts of this more advanced type of mathematical talk were more likely to learn from it compared to receiving any amount of more basic mathematical talk about shape and color identification. Moreover, our study is one of the first to look for relations between children's own mathematical talk at home and their learning, and the positive relation between children's use of matching features talk and their shape learning represents their active participation and meaning-making during gameplay, rather than their passive listening to their caregivers (see also [53][54][55]).…”

Minor changes, big differences? Effects of manipulating play materials on parental math talk.

“…Some contexts and activities have been found to elicit more math talk than others, even in the absence of explicit instructions. More specifically, research has found that preschool parents’ math talk varies across different types of books (Gibson et al, 2020; Hendrix et al, 2019) and different kinds of activities (DePascale et al, 2021; de Vries et al, 2021; Ramani et al, 2015; Thippana et al, 2020). Such findings raise the possibility that systematically manipulating the features of play materials could provide a tool for implicitly affecting the amount and kind of parental math talk.…”