How numbers are presented in counting books matters for children’s learning: A parent-delivered intervention

• In Event: 1-081 - Moving the needle on the home numeracy environment: Low-cost, feasible interventions to enhance child outcomes

Integrative Statement

While parents engage in learning activities with their young children, these activities do not typically focus on math. This is concerning because early math knowledge prior to the start of formal schooling is one of the most important predictors of future academic achievement (Claessens & Engel, 2013). In order to change this, it is necessary to develop effective ways to engage parents in supporting children’s early math development. In the current study, we test the hypothesis that it may be possible to do this by introducing math learning in the home through shared book reading, an activity that many parents engage in with young children. Additionally, we assess whether different kinds of books might be more effective in supporting young children’s early math learning, contrasting a goal-based story with visually complex scenes that support the narrative and a simple representation of sets that only highlight the number relevant information, and comparing both to a control book that contains no math content.

Children’s number knowledge was measured with the Give-N task during a pre-, mid-, and post-test, each scheduled two weeks apart. Families were randomly assigned to one of three book conditions: rich counting book (visually rich scenes with a goal-based narrative), sparse counting book (sets presented on a white background with prompts to count and label) or a control color book (all numerical input replaced with color words). Parents were asked to read the experimenter-created book at home and to keep track of their reading frequency using a log. To date, we have assessed 47 3-year-olds and their parents (target N=66).

Preliminary analyses suggest that compared to the color control group, a higher proportion of children in both the rich (p<0.01) and sparse counting book (p=0.02) conditions improved in knower-level at the end of the four-week intervention (Figure 1). The proportion of children who improved in the rich counting book condition was also marginally higher than the sparse counting book (p=0.06). There were also differences in the average knower level gain of children in the three conditions (Figure 2). Only children in the rich counting book condition significantly outperformed children in the color control condition at post-test, controlling for initial performance (p=0.02). Children’s gains in the sparse counting book condition did not differ from the control (p=0.17) or rich book conditions (p=0.26). Importantly, these differences in learning outcomes are not due to reading frequency; the total number of reads parents reported in the logs did not vary across conditions.

These findings suggest that parent-child shared reading of number books is an effective way to supporting number learning. They also suggest that some kinds of number books may be more effective than others in supporting children’s early numerical development. Specifically, goal-based stories with supporting pictures are more effective in promoting children’s understanding of cardinality than simpler counting books without a story. Future coding of the parent-child book readings will explore how parents and children are engaging with the book content to understand how these materials lead to differential learning.

Authors

• Cristina Carrazza, University of Chicago
  Presenting Author

• Susan C. Levine, University of Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author