2-163 - Parental Support for Children's Early Numeracy and Literacy: Longitudinal Evidence From Four Countries

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory (Vygotsky, 1978) suggests that children learn through social interaction with more experienced persons (mentors) in their culture. Recent research has documented the importance of (1) early mathematics and literacy skills to children's later academic success (Duncan et al., 2007) and (2) the home learning environment to the process of acquiring foundational academic skills (Senechal & LeFevre, 2002; Skwarchuk et al., 2014). This symposium, consisting of four longitudinal studies, addresses the role that parents play as mentors of their young children in the domains of literacy and numeracy. Paper one, from Germany, demonstrates that Home Learning Environment (HLE) in kindergarten predicts child academic outcomes in fourth grade, with HLE acting as a mediator between family background and child outcomes. Both the second and third papers from New Zealand and the United States, respectively, use a new instrument (EASYC) to measure parental facilitation of mathematics and literacy in young children and to identify optimal parental practices. Both report, with some expected cultural differences, that parents' home teaching directly predicts 4- and 5-year-old children’s literacy and numeracy scores concurrently and one year later. The fourth paper reports on a parent intervention in Australia, where both HLE and children's numeracy benefited when parents of kindergartners in the intervention group were informed about ways to promote literacy and numeracy development in their young children. These papers collectively demonstrate that parental home teaching and the home learning environment contribute substantially to young children's current and future academic success in four different countries.

Sub Unit

• Education, Schooling

Chair

• Carol S Huntsinger, Northern Illinois University

Individual Presentations

• Home Learning Environment and the Development of Child Competencies From Kindergarten Until the End of Elementary School - Presenting Author: Frank Niklas, Univ of Melbourne; Wolfgang Schneider, University of Wuerzburg

• Support of Young Children's Literacy and Numeracy Skills: Exploring Home-Based Activities in New Zealand - Presenting Author: Paul E Jose, Victoria University of Wellington; Kylie J. Munro, Victoria University of Wellington

• Parental Encouragement of Early Mathematics and Reading in the United States - Presenting Author: Carol S Huntsinger, Northern Illinois University; Paul E Jose, Victoria University of Wellington

• Parents Leading Learning: A Non-Intensive Intervention Study to Support the Home Learning Environment - Presenting Author: Caroline Cohrssen, University of Melbourne; Frank Niklas, Univ of Melbourne; Collette Patria Tayler, University of Melbourne