Poster #37 - Parent Report of Home Math Activities that are ‘Just Right’ for their Children

• In Event: Poster Session 18

Abstract

The home is one of the first learning environments that children are exposed to and is essential for later academic success, particularly in math achievement (Munez et al., 2021; Zhu & Chiu, 2019). There has been a growing body of work examining the role of the home mathematics environment (HME) in fostering early mathematics skills (Hornburg et al., 2021). A recent meta-analysis found a small average relation (r=.14) between the HME and math achievement (Daucourt et al., 2021), but there is considerable variability in the individual estimates of this relation. For example, some studies have found null relations (LeFevre et al., 2009), some have found positive relations (Benavides-Varela, 2016; Huntsinger et al., 2000), and some have found negative relations (Missall et al., 2015). These mixed results raise the question of whether the current approach to measuring the HME is appropriate. Thompson and colleagues (2017) report differences in the relations between items at different ages, indicating more nuance at the item level. Thus, one explanation for mixed results may be that the HME-achievement relation may change over time, as different ages elicit different activities from parents. Hornburg and colleagues (2021) recently made a call for researchers to be more considerate in the measurement of the HME, for example by perhaps including children’s age and developmental stages in questions about home activities due to the likelihood that caregivers engage in different activities depending on those factors. Targeting the appropriate activities to best capture the relation between the HME and mathematics achievement is essential.
Parents (N=958, 67.75% female) were recruited online to fill out a survey on the home learning environment. Parents were asked 58 questions about the HME covering early numeracy, geometry and spatial skills, and measurement. Specifically, parents were asked, “In the PAST MONTH, how often did you and your child engage in the following?” and then were presented with an activity that involved mathematics. For each HME item, parents were asked to assess the developmental appropriateness of that activity for their child. For example, one activity parents were asked about was “In the past month, how often did you count objects with your child?” and then for that same activity, parents were asked to determine whether “This activity is ____ for my child” with potential responses of 1=Too easy, 2=Just right, or 3=Too hard.
Overall, results show developmental shifts in the activities parents considered appropriate for their child’s age. Parents rated a majority of the home numeracy (31 of 34), spatial (16 of 21), and measurement activities (5 of 5) as too difficult for their one-year-old children. By age six, most parents rated home numeracy (34 of 34) and spatial (19 of 21) activities as just right for their child, while half of the measurement activities remained too difficult. These results provide important insights into how parents conceptualize the HME and perhaps tailor specific math activities to the age of their child. These insights indicate that measurement of the HME should be improved by using more age-appropriate measures.

Authors

• Patrick Ehrman, Purdue University, West Lafayette
  Presenting Author

• Alexa Ellis, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa

• David James Purpura, Purdue University, West Lafayette