Facilitating young children's numeracy talk in play: The role of parent prompts

How does activity context relate to parents' responses to preschoolers' errors and correct math statements?

Research shows that parent-child math activities in the home positively relate to children's math learning. Although there is evidence suggesting that the nature of parent guidance during these interactions is important for children's math learning, it is unclear how parents respond to preschoolers' errors and correct math statements and whether responses vary across activity contexts. We examined parents' responses to errors and correct statements during structured math activities with 49 dyads of parents and 4- and 5-year-olds. Dyads were assigned to either an Informal Learning condition (n = 25) or a Formal Learning condition (n = 24). We identified instances where children responded correctly or incorrectly to math prompts and coded parents' feedback based on the extent to which it supported children's autonomy and learning. Overall, parents most frequently responded in ways that encouraged children's continued math engagement and thinking (elaborative guidance). However, multiple regression analyses revealed that parents were more likely to not respond to errors during informal learning than during formal learning, and parents were more likely to give the correct answer following an error during formal learning compared with during informal learning. Parents in both conditions were equally likely to offer elaborative support following errors. Moreover, parents did not differ in their responses following children's correct statements across conditions. These findings suggest, irrespective of activity context, that parents can realize opportunities to effectively support preschoolers' math learning. Yet, given differences in parents' responses to errors, the findings have implications as to how we can tailor recommendations to promote high-quality parent-child math interactions.

Linking parents' play strategies with their preschoolers' STEM skills: The mediating roles of child STEM talk and self-regulated learning

Previous studies document associations between parents' use of guided-play strategies and children's STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) skills. We extend existing research by exploring mediating mechanisms that may account for these links. Parents played with their preschool children (N = 75; 49% girls and 51% boys; 94% White, 3% Black, 1% biracial, 1% Asian, and 1% Native American; Mage = 4.82 years) in undertaking a building challenge. Videotaped play was coded for parents' guiding STEM talk (density of math, spatial, and scientific inquiry language) and management strategy (high vs. low directiveness). Mediators included children's STEM talk during play and self-regulated learning (assessed by executive function tests and examiner's ratings of children's task orientation). Structural equation models confirmed hypothesized mediated paths from parent STEM talk to child math (but not spatial) skills via child STEM talk and from parent STEM talk and directiveness to child math and spatial skills via child self-regulated learning. We discuss implications for future research and intervention design.

Math talk by mothers, fathers, and toddlers: Differences across materials and associations with children's math understanding

Learning words for numbers, shapes, spatial relations, and magnitudes-"math talk"-relies on input from caregivers. Language interactions between caregivers and children are situated in activity contexts and likely affected by available materials. Here, we examined how play materials influence the math talk directed to and produced by young children. We video-recorded parents (mothers and fathers; English- and/or Spanish-speaking) and their 24- to 36-month-olds during play with four sets of materials, transcribed and coded types of parent and toddler math words/phrases, and assessed toddlers' understanding of number, shape, and spatial relations terms. Categories of math words varied by materials. Numeracy talk (e.g., "one," "two," "first," "second") was more frequent during interactions with a picture book and toy grocery shopping set than with a shape sorter or magnet board; the reverse held for spatial talk (e.g., "out," "bottom," "up," "circle"). Parent math talk predicted toddler math talk, and both parent and toddler math talk predicted toddlers' understanding of spatial and number words. Different materials provide unique opportunities for toddlers to learn abstract math words during interactions with caregivers, and such interactions support early math cognition.

Introducing Mr. Three: Attention, Perception, and Meaning Selection in the Acquisition of Number and Color Words

Children learn their first number words gradually over the course of many months, which is surprising given their ability to discriminate small numerosities. One potential explanation for this is that children are sensitive to the numerical features of stimuli, but don't consider exact cardinality as a primary hypothesis for novel word meanings. To test this, we trained 144 children on a number word they hadn't yet learned, and contrasted this with a condition in which they were merely required to attend to number to identify the word's referent, without encoding number as its meaning. In the first condition, children were trained to find a "giraffe with three spots." In the second condition, children were instead trained to find "Mr. Three", which also named a giraffe with three spots. In both conditions, children had to attend to number to identify the target giraffe, but, because proper nouns refer to individuals rather than their properties, the second condition did not require children to encode number as the meaning of the expression. We found that children were significantly better at identifying the giraffe when it had been labeled with the proper noun than with the number word. This finding contrasted with a second experiment involving color words, in which children (n = 56) were equally successful with a proper noun ("Mr. Purple") and an adjective ("the giraffe with purple spots"). Together, these findings suggest that, for number, but not for color, children's difficulty acquiring new words cannot be solely attributed to problems with attention or perception, but instead may be due to difficulty selecting the correct meaning from their hypothesis space for learning unknown words.

Exploring the role of "in the moment" and global caregiver and child factors in caregiver questioning during shared book viewing

Questions of high (vs. low) cognitive demand (CD), which encourage children to engage in abstract or critical thinking (e.g., problem solve, reason about cause-and-effect relations, make inferences), may drive relations between children's language exposure and early skills. The present study adopted a micro-analytic approach to examine caregivers' high-CD questioning with their preschool-aged children while viewing a wordless picture book (n = 121) and "in the moment" (e.g., interaction time, child responses) and global factors (e.g., caregiver education). The probability of caregivers' high-CD questioning increased with interaction time and caregiver education. Post-hoc exploratory analyses revealed that the relation between children's responses and caregivers' high-CD questioning depended on caregivers' perceptions of children's vocabulary skills. Specifically, the probability of caregivers' subsequent high-CD questioning was greater if their child did not respond previously and if caregivers perceived them to have high vocabulary skills. In contrast, caregivers' questioning remained relatively constant for responsive children across different vocabulary skills. Thus, caregivers may employ certain types of input during brief, informal learning interactions with their children by considering their own and their child's propensities and micro-level changes that occur during their conversations.

Socioeconomic Variations in the Frequency of Parent Number Talk: A Meta-Analysis

Using data from 12 studies, we meta-analyze correlations between parent number talk during interactions with their young children (mean sample age ranging from 22 to 79 months) and two aspects of family socioeconomics, parent education, and family income. Potential variations in correlation sizes as a function of study characteristics were explored. Statistically significant positive correlations were found between the amount of number talk in parent-child interactions and both parent education and family income (i.e., r = 0.12 for education and 0.14 for income). Exploratory moderator analyses provided some preliminary evidence that child age, as well as the average level of and variability in socioeconomic status, may moderate effect sizes. The implications of these findings are discussed with special attention to interpreting the practical importance of the effect sizes in light of family strengths and debate surrounding "word gaps".