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PBS KIDS Digital Games Support Parent Engagement in Young Children's Math Learning in Low-Income Communities

Fri, April 17, 10:35am to 12:05pm, Hyatt, Floor: West Tower - Green Level, Crystal C

Abstract

Objectives: To present findings from a study that examines an educational program designed to help low-income parents become more actively involved in their young child’s learning by using PBS KIDS web- and mobile-based mathematics transmedia game suites. The study tested the educational efficacy of four PBS KIDS transmedia suites in increasing preschoolers’ mathematics skills and parents’ ability to support their child’s mathematics learning in the home environment. In addition, the study explored the feasibility of training Head Start teachers to facilitate parent meetings related to the program intervention.

Theoretical framework: There is growing evidence that economically disadvantaged preschool children have less extensive mathematical knowledge than their middle-income peers (Ginsburg & Russell, 1981; Starkey, Klein, & Wakeley, 2004). Parent support and engagement in early childhood education has long been shown to be a positive influence on a child’s academic achievement, most especially in low-income and minority families (Becker & Epstein, 1982; Fan & Chen, 2001). Early education coupled with parent involvement provides cognitive advantage at school entry that initiates a positive chain of effects that leads to better school performance and adjustment, and that over time culminates in higher rates of school completion and lower drop-out rates (Graue, Clements, Reynolds, & Niles, 2004; Reynolds, Ou, & Topitzes, 2004).

Methods: The study used a quasi-experimental, non-equivalent control group design, which assigned 120 parent/child dyads from two Head Start centers to an intervention or comparison group. During the ten-week intervention, intervention group child/parent dyads accessed the PBS KIDS suites, including games and home-activity-supporting materials for parents, via Google Chromebooks. Each week of the study, parents in the intervention group met at the child’s preschool and received a weekly curriculum of PBS KIDS transmedia activities to use with their children. Parent-meeting facilitators explained mathematics concepts presented in the PBS KIDS transmedia activities so that parents could better understand the activities and support their children’s learning. Parents were encouraged to work with their children for 30 minutes per day, four days per week.

Data sources: Pre- and post-tests with the Child Mathematics Assessment (CMA); electronic usage logs; and parent surveys, with two scales adapted from the Home Learning Environment survey

Results: The results indicate that the intervention was positively associated with gains in children’s knowledge and skills in mathematics, as measured by the CMA, after accounting for differences in baseline assessment and demographic characteristics. Parents’ awareness and perceived available resources at home to support the child’s learning also surpassed the comparison group, after controlling for the differences in baseline.

Significance: When low-income parents are made aware of the nature of early mathematics and how best to support their children’s early mathematics learning through games and other activities, their children’s mathematics skills increase, and the mathematics knowledge gap between them and their more advantaged peers decreases. The study showed that a curriculum of transmedia suites and related parent activities, delivered to parents by trained educators in partnership with their children’s preschool, strengthens the home-school connection and enhances children’s mathematics knowledge and skill.

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