2-109 - From Toddlers to School Age Children: Cultural and age differences in Home Numeracy, Numerical Skills, and Mathematical Cognition

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

The development of mathematical cognition is a prominent research topic in developmental psychology. Nowadays, attention is being paid to children’s early learning environments initiating and fostering early mathematical cognition. Home numeracy refers to indirect and direct home experiences that are either explicitly focused on numbers (e.g. counting objects, measuring entities) or implicitly integrated into real-world tasks (e.g., playing card or board games that involve numbers). Through those experiences children aquire numeracy(LeFevre, Skwarchuk, Smith-Chant, Fast, Kamawar, & Bisanz, 2009). Consequently, home numeracy is related to performance on mathematical achievement tests (Blevins-Knabe & Musun-Miller 1996; Huntsinger et al. 2000). Despite wide consensus that home numeracy is important for mathematical cognition, a lot of issues remain unresolved. Hence, the relations between home numeracy, other mathematical precursors, and mathematical achievement need to be examined. The symposium aims to expand our knowledge about the role of home numeracy and the underlying mechanisms for mathematical achievement and early understanding of cardinal number value through parent-child activities across a wide age range (toddlers to 2nd graders). Papers from three different countries (Spain, Singapore, Switzerland) focus on direct and indirect effects of home numeracy. The first study examines emerging numeracy over the toddler years by taking parental communication factors into account. The second paper investigates the specific associations between direct and indirect home numeracy and mathematical achievement in Singaporean preschoolers. The third study examines the relation between home numeracy, basic numerical skills, executive functions and motor skills on mathematical achievement in school aged children.

Sub Unit

• Cognitive Processes

Chair

• Claudia Roebers, University of Bern

Discussant

• JoAnne LeFevre, Carleton University, Canada

Individual Presentations

• Emergent numeracy in adult-child interactions: a case study on cardinal number value understanding - Presenting Author: Silvia Cavalcante, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain; Cintia Rodríguez, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain; Eduard Martí, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain; Nora Scheuer, Conicet Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Argentina; Bárbara M. Brizuela, Tufts University, United States of America

• Home numeracy activities and mathematical achievement in Singaporean preschoolers - Presenting Author: Rebecca Bull, Nanyang Technological University; Kerry Lee, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

• Basic Numerical Skills, Fine Motor Skills and Informal Home Numeracy predict Mathematical Achievement in 2nd grade - Presenting Author: Venera Gashaj, University of Bern; Nicole Oberer, University of Bern; Fred W. Mast, University of Bern; Claudia Roebers, University of Bern