Dime Cuántos: Latine Parents' Math Talk during Wordless Book Sharing

• In Event: Storybooks and Equitable STEM Learning in Early Childhood: Moving from Books to Narratives

Abstract

Family storybook sharing has emerged as a strategic everyday context that can be leveraged to support the development of early mathematical skills,the language and cornerstone of STEM. Previous work has found that key math concepts (i.e., number, quantity, shape, and measurement) and vocabulary emerge during parent-child book sharing, providing children with rich opportunities to engage in mathematical thinking. Nonetheless, the discourse used during book sharing is both shaped by and reflective of a families' culture and individual socialization goals, values, and norms. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of the research on book sharing as a math-rich activity has focused on English-speaking, European American families. This severely limits the cultural validity of our current knowledge and its applicability to inform intervention and educational efforts with children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. The present study addressed this gap by: (a) describing the extent, type, and manner in which math concepts emerged during a naturalistic wordless book sharing interaction between Latine parents and their preschoolers, and (b) exploring the relation between parental math talk and the relative importance given to a set of STEM and academic abilities.

Methods
Participants were 75 Latine parents and their preschool-aged children (Mage= 47 months; SD = 8.00; 47% girls). About 45% of parents were born in Mexico, 23% in other Latin American countries, the rest in the US. Parents had about 11 years of formal schooling (SD = 3.13), and 64% spoke only Spanish. Dyads were asked to share a wordless picture book, Pancakes for Breakfast (dePaola, 1978) as they normally would. Interactions were videotaped, transcribed using a standardized format, and coded at the utterance level for: (a) math content types (e.g., numbers, measurement, and spatial relations), (b) discourse functions (e.g., narrative provision, narrative request, extratextual talk types), and (c) narrative elements (e.g., event, description). Parents were asked to rate a set of abilities (i.e., STEM, socio-emotional, and basic preschool literacy skills).

Results and Discussion
Preliminary analyses showed that all mothers naturally incorporated math concepts during the book sharing. On average 40% of the dyadic turns included math concepts; the majority were discussions of number and quantity, followed by spatial talk (e.g., motion and location words), and measurement (e.g., dimensions of objects and sequencing of events). Most math talk appeared as part of the story telling (i.e., character actions, descriptions of settings, or linking of actions), but all mothers used extratextual talk, mostly in the form of directives to encourage children's mathematical thinking, such as counting objects, naming shapes, or describing the passing of time. No gender differences were found in the math talk directed to boys and girls. Some differences were found across languages: Spanish-speaking parents used more motion words as compared to English-speaking parents. Finally, the amount of extratextual math talk was related to parental endorsement of academic skills and STEM abilities. Results are discussed in relation to the need to take into account culture and language when using storybooks to support early math learning.

Authors

• Gigliana Melzi, New York University
  Presenting Author

• Viviana Kawas, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jessica Huancacuri, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Margaret Caspe, National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement
  Non-Presenting Author