Contemporaneous and Longer-Term Associations between Parents' and Young Children's Number Talk

• In Event: 3-152 - Supports for Facilitating Parent-Child Math Engagement During Home Activities

Integrative Statement

Parents’ talk about number during play and daily routines is a strong predictor of preschoolers’ later math achievement (e.g., Casey et al., 2016; Susperreguy & Davis-Kean, 2016). Recent studies have identified characteristics of parent number talk that appear to better facilitate children’s early math learning (e.g., Casey et al., 2016; Gunderson et al., 2011; Ramani et al., 2015). While it is believed that exposure to high quality number talk promotes children’s math knowledge through the provision of opportunities to explore and practice numerical concepts and skills, little is known about the actual relation between parent and child number talk over time. The present study sought to address this gap by examining associations between the quantity and quality of parent and child number talk during family cooking activities occurring over three months. In particular, this work was guided by three primary research questions:
1. Does parent number talk predict child number talk, contemporaneously and prospectively?
2. Does within-parent variation in the quantity and quality of number talk – across cooking sessions – predict within-child variation in number talk?
3. Are there qualitative changes in the quantity or quality of parent and child number talk over time?
Data used in this investigation was part of a larger experimental study testing the impact of providing parents with tips on how to support their children’s number learning while cooking. Families were recruited from preschool centers serving predominantly low-income children of color. Thirty families of 3- to 5-year-old children were asked to audio record six cooking sessions with their children across three months. Audio recordings were coded for quantity (e.g., total number words spoken per minute) and quality (e.g., do parents prompt children to discuss critical concepts such as estimating and comparing set sizes?) of number talk. Children’s numerical skills (REMA Counting Learning Trajectory, Clements et al., 2008) were measured prior to receiving cookbooks with talk tips as well as two and six months after receiving the cookbooks.
Thus far, we have analyzed associations between parent and child number talk during the first cooking session. In these analyses, we examined two aspects of parent number talk: (a) statements about number and (b) prompts and questions about number. Together parent number statements and number prompts explained 72.5% of the variation in the frequency (per minute) with which children used number words (F = 25.07, p < .001). The strength of the association between parent number prompts (β = .60) and child number talk, however, was nearly twice that of parent number statements (β = .36). In a series of follow-up models, we controlled for children’s initial numerical skills, child age, child gender, and whether families were assigned to the experimental condition; in these models, both parent number prompts and number statements remained statistically significant. Our complete longitudinal analyses of parent and child number talk will be discussed in relation to evidence regarding the characteristics of high quality parent number talk and possible mechanisms through which parent number talk promotes child math achievement.

Authors

• Ariadne Nelson, Boston College
  Presenting Author

• Lindsay Clements, Boston College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Hope Dragelin, Boston College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Meghan L. Coughlan, Boston College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Eric Dearing, Boston College
  Non-Presenting Author