The Effect of a Brief Information-Based Intervention on the Home Math Environment

• In Event: Broadening Our Understanding of Early Math Support at Home and at School

Abstract

The current study evaluated the extent to which parental math support, knowledge about early math development, and expectations for their child’s future math development could be improved by providing them with brief information about early math development. The current study is grounded in the parent socialization model [1], which posits that parents’ expectations regarding their children’s academic achievement shape how they support their children academically which in turn impacts their children’s academic achievement. We hypothesized that a brief intervention would increase parents’ expectations for their child’s math development and their math support as well as their knowledge about early math development [2; 10]. Notably, we examined both numeracy and patterning given that both are important math domains, with too little attention paid to patterning [11-13].
Parents (N = 107, 85% mothers) and their four-year-old children (50% boys) participated in the study. The majority of parents had at least a bachelor’s degree (74%) and identified as White (54%) or Black (36%). The 15-minute intervention included parents receiving information about four early numeracy skills or repeating patterning skills based on random assignment to the “numeracy condition” (n = 54) or the “patterning condition” (n = 53). Additionally, parents received six text messages about some of the same numeracy or patterning skills across two weeks. Parents completed a 10-minute survey and a 5-minute, video-recorded play session with their child immediately before (“T1”) and two weeks after the intervention (“T2”). The survey focused on parents’ math support, knowledge, beliefs, and feedback about the intervention. Parent-child dyads were asked to play as they would at home with provided toys during the play session which was later coded for parent observed support of numeracy and patterning.
Preliminary analyses revealed that there were no significant differences between parents at T1 based on their condition (see Table 3) and that parents’ education and income were related to several main variables at T1 (see Table 4). The relevant variables at T1 and parent education and income were included as covariates in the main ANCOVA analyses which were conducted to examine the effect of the intervention on each variable of interest at T2 (see Table 5). First, there was a positive effect of condition on parents’ knowledge about early numeracy development, but not on other measures of their knowledge or expectations. Second, there was a positive effect of condition on several measures of observed parental numeracy and patterning support and on the complexity of parent-reported numeracy support at home. Additionally, a majority of the parents (98%) reported that the information they received in the intervention was helpful and that they used it.
Overall, the current study found that parents supported preschoolers math development more often after receiving definitions and examples of how to support important early math skills in a brief intervention. Importantly, parents have expressed interest in receiving information about math in the past [14] and the parents in the current study valued and benefited from receiving information. Additionally, this parent early math intervention was brief and easy to administer.

Authors

• Ashli-Ann Douglas, WestEd

• Camille Msall, Vanderbilt University

• Faith Logan, Vanderbilt University

• Bethany Rittle-Johnson, Vanderbilt University