Parents’ Preferences for Mathematics Content in Children’s Picture Books

• In Event: 1-2-3! Supporting children's numeracy skills in families and schools

Abstract

Number books provide one important context for early mathematical learning. The design of number books influences the level of number talk caregivers and children engage in (O’Rear et al., 2021). Furthermore, there are a wide variety of number books available on the market (Powell & Nurnberger-Hagg, 2015; Ward et al., 2017), providing caregivers with many choices for which books to read. Previous work has suggested that when caregivers are given a forced-choice between different counting books to read with their child, they focus on the mathematical content of the book relatively less often than non-mathematical content (O’Rear et al., 2019). However, it remains unclear what caregivers consider when deciding between number books and books that are not explicitly mathematical as well as whether any caregiver-level factors may influence the features they focus on. In the current, pre-registered study, we investigated the features that caregivers focus on when selecting which books to read as well as whether caregiver-related factors (mathematical anxiety and ratings of mathematical enjoyment) are related to caregivers’ tendency to consider mathematics an important feature of these books.
Parents (N=196) of three-to-five-year-old children (Mage=4.30, SDage=0.87; 106 boys, 89 girls, 1 prefer not to answer; 150 white, 18 biracial, 11 Hispanic or Latino, 10 African American, 7 Asian) completed a survey asking about the books they read with their child, their mathematical anxiety, and their enjoyment of mathematical-related activities. Following our pre-registered analyses, we investigated why caregivers stated they would or would not read an example book with their child. Caregivers were more likely to mention the mathematics-related material within the number book examples than when they were discussing non-number books, F(1, 191)=4.915, p=.028. When only considering number books, parents mentioned the mathematical content in their responses (30%) at a lower level compared to their focus on the non-mathematical content (80%), McNemar test, χ^2 (1, n=196)=55.51, p<.001). Neither caregiver mathematical anxiety (p=.914) nor caregiver ratings of their enjoyment of mathematical-related activities (p=.629) were significantly related to a focus on the mathematical content when deciding what books to read. Next, we investigated caregivers’ ratings of the importance of mathematical content within number books and caregivers’ reported frequency of reading number books with their child. Caregiver mathematical anxiety was not significantly related to either variable (ps>.8). Caregivers’ rated enjoyment of mathematical-related activities was positively related to both their belief of the importance of mathematical content when selecting number books (β ̂=.21, p=.020) as well as their reported frequency of reading number books with their child (β ̂=.193, p=.015).
Exploratory analyses revealed that caregivers were significantly less likely to focus on how their child would enjoy the book when it was a number book compared to a non-number book and that caregivers were significantly more likely to focus on how challenging the book was as well as the illustrations of the book when it was a number book. These results help inform our understanding of how caregivers choose books to read with their child, illustrating factors that influence how the early mathematical environment is structured.

Authors

• Cayla Woten, Purdue University, West Lafayette
  Presenting Author

• Connor O'Rear, Purdue University, West Lafayette

• Elizabeth Clark, Purdue University

• Sophie Donegan, Purdue University

• Alexa Ellis, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa

• Sarah H. Eason, Purdue University, West Lafayette

• David James Purpura, Purdue University, West Lafayette