“How Many Did You Get?”: The Role of Parent-Child Factors in Math Talk During Play

• In Event: Parents’ Role in Children’s Numeracy Development: A Focus on Numeracy Gesturing and Talk

Abstract

Previous research indicates that parent-child engagement in math can support children’s math learning (Daucourt et al., 2021). However, interactions vary, and many factors can influence the types of math interactions parents and children have. For example, parents vary in the amount of math talk they use (Ramani et al., 2015). In addition, the role of parent math anxiety in children’s learning differs across contexts, relating to learning in some contexts (e.g., math homework; Maloney et al., 2015) but not others (e.g., math iPad app; Schaeffer et al., 2018). Because early math knowledge is predictive of later achievement, it is important to understand how factors may influence parent-child math engagement and children’s math learning.

The aims of the current study were to examine if: (1) parent math anxiety and attitudes towards play predict parent math talk during play with math games; (2) child characteristics (e.g., age, gender) predict parent math talk during play with math games; and (3) parent math talk and attitudes toward play relate to changes in children’s math anxiety and math performance.

Participants were 98 children (Mage = 70.85 months, 51% female) and their parent, recruited from online social media and listserv posts. The study involved a pretest, 4-week intervention, and posttest. Parents completed online survey measures of math anxiety and attitudes towards play, including their involvement in and enjoyment of play with their child. At pretest and posttest, children completed measures of math anxiety and math ability (graphing, arithmetic, magnitude comparison) on Zoom with an experimenter. During the intervention, parents and children played a math board game or card game at home for 4 weeks. Families recorded one session of their gameplay. Videos (n = 74) were transcribed and use of math talk was calculated from the transcripts.

Results indicate that parent math anxiety and parent attitudes toward play were not significant predictors of math talk. Parent math talk did not significantly differ by child age (t(72)=-0.310, p=.757, d=-.074), but did significantly differ by child gender (t(72)=-2.380, p=.020, d=-.553), such that parents of boys (M=92.73) used more math talk than parents of girls (M=71.81). Relations with changes in children’s math anxiety and math performance were examined separately by child gender (Table 1). For boys, parent math talk significantly related to changes in child math anxiety over the course of the 4-week intervention, and parent attitudes about involvement in play significantly related to changes in children’s arithmetic performance from pretest to posttest. For girls, parent attitudes about enjoyment of play significantly related to changes in child math anxiety, however, parent math talk did not significantly relate to changes in child math anxiety or math abilities. Overall, these findings replicate variability in parent-child math interactions and suggest that certain elements of parent-child math interactions can contribute to variation in children’s math anxiety and math learning.

Authors

• Mary DePascale, Boston College
  Presenting Author

• Geetha B. Ramani, University of Maryland - College Park