1-128 - Understanding Variability in Early Home Numeracy and its Impact on Children’s Math Abilities

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Children’s math abilities at the start of school are among the strongest predictors of later reading and math achievement (Duncan et al., 2007), but children already differ quite dramatically in their math skills before entering formal schooling (Jordan, Kaplan, Locuniak & Ramineni, 2007). One possible explanation for this variability is that children experience different levels of exposure to mathematical concepts at home. This symposium aims to address how home numeracy activities affect children’s math abilities in early childhood and which contextual and parental factors influence variability in parents’ engagement in home numeracy activities. Paper 1 will compare how different measures of home numeracy (parental report measured via questionnaires versus math talk measured via direct observations) differentially relate to children’s math abilities. Paper 2 will further illustrate how parental math talk differs by context (didactic activities, guided and unguided play). Papers 3 and 4 will illustrate how different parental factors such as their unlearned number sense and their own math abilities (Paper 3) as well as their math anxiety and socio-economic status (Paper 4) influence the extent to which parents engage in home numeracy activities. Together these papers provide important insights into the factors that influence variability in early home numeracy activities and provide a first step toward developing programs to increase early numeracy. Such programs are desperately needed to decrease the gap in children’s math skills prior to school entry.

Sub Unit

• Cognitive Processes

Chair

• Melissa Libertus, University of Pittsburgh

Individual Presentations

• Investigating the Relationship Between Two Home Numeracy Measures: A Questionnaire and Observational Data - Belde Mutaf, KU Leuven; Presenting Author: Delphine Sasanguie, KU Leuven; Bert De Smedt, KU Leuven; Bert Reynvoet, KULeuven

• Parents’ and Preschoolers’ Talk about Fractions During Playful and Didactic Activities - Presenting Author: Sarah H. Eason, University of Maryland; Geetha Ramani, University of Maryland, College Park

• Parents’ Own Number Sense and Math Abilities Explain Variability in Informal Math Talk with Their Children - Presenting Author: Melissa Libertus, University of Pittsburgh; Leanne Elliott, University of Pittsburgh; Emily J. Braham, University of Pittsburgh

• Math Anxiety and Parents’ Use of Number Words with Their Children - Presenting Author: Talia Berkowitz, University of Chicago; Dominic J. Gibson, University of Chicago; Joseph Monahan, University of Chicago; Susan Levine, University of Chicago