1-189 - Innovative Approaches at Home and School to Improve Children’s Early Math Skills

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Math skills are a stronger predictor of later learning than literacy skills (Duncan et al., 2007). Yet, most interventions with preschool-aged children have focused on improving literacy skills. Less is known about effective ways to support children’s early math skills. Furthermore, most early math interventions have focused on teachers, very few have focused on parents. This symposium provides evidence on three innovative approaches, conducted at home and school, that aim to improve early math skills in children from low-income households.

Paper 1 investigated the feasibility of a program targeting low-income Latino parents, that capitalized on family food routines (grocery shopping, cooking) to enhance ’s kindergarteners’ math skills. Children whose parents attended the program and started school with lower initial math skills had more advanced math outcomes at post-test. Paper 2 examined the effectiveness of a program targeting low-income parents that aimed to improve preschoolers’ numeric skills through the use of cookbooks with number talk tips. Preliminary analysis showed that parents who received the cookbooks increased their number talk; however, no differences were found in children’s numeric skills at the 2-month post-test. Analysis of the 6-month post-test data will be presented at the conference. Paper 3 examined the benefits of playing tablet-based games in school targeting numerical magnitude knowledge. Kindergarten children who played the games increased their numerical knowledge at post-test and maintained those gains at the one-month follow-up. Together, these 3 papers underline evidence-based pathways through which SES discrepancies in math skills at school entry can be reduced.

Sub Unit

• Education, Schooling

Chair

• Diana Leyva, Davidson College

Discussant

• Susan Sonnenschein, UMBC

Individual Presentations

• Recipe for Success: Capitalizing on Family Food Routines to Develop Latino Children’s Math Skills - Presenting Author: Diana Leyva, Davidson College; Non-Presenting Author: Anna Davis, University of Virginia; Non-Presenting Author: Lauren Skorb, Georgia Tech

• Embedding Tips in Family Cookbooks to Improve Parent Number Talk and Young Children’s Numerical Skills - Presenting Author: Eric Dearing, Boston College; Non-Presenting Author: Ariadne Nelson, Boston College; Non-Presenting Author: Lindsay Clements, Boston College

• Benefits of Playing Tablet Games on Kindergarten Children’s Numerical Knowledge - Presenting Author: Geetha Ramani, University of Maryland; Non-Presenting Author: Emily N Daubert, Rutgers University - Newark; Non-Presenting Author: Grace Lin, University of California, Irvine; Non-Presenting Author: Snigdha Kamarsu, University of California, Irvine; Non-Presenting Author: Alaina Wodzinski, University of Maryland, College Park; Non-Presenting Author: Susanne Jaeggi, School of Education, University of California, Irvine