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Numerical Activities and Information Learned at Home Link to the Exact Numeracy Skills in 5-6 Years-Old Children.

ABSTRACT: It is currently accepted that certain activities within the family environment contribute to develop early numerical skills before schooling. However, it is unknown whether this early experience influences both the exact and the approximate representation of numbers, and if so, which is more important for numerical tasks. In the present study the mathematical performance of 110 children (mean age 5 years 11 months) was evaluated using a battery that included tests of approximate and exact numerical abilities, as well as everyday numerical problems. Moreover, children were assessed on their knowledge of number information learned at home. The parents of the participants provided information regarding daily activities of the children and socio-demographic characteristics of the family. The results showed that the amount of numerical information learned at home was a significant predictor of participants' performance on everyday numerical problems and exact number representations, even after taking account of age, memory span and socio-economic and educational status of the family. We also found that particular activities, such as board games, correlate with the children's counting skills, which are foundational for arithmetic. Crucially, tests relying on approximate representations were not predicted by the numerical knowledge acquired at home. The present research supports claims about the importance and nature of home experiences in the child's acquisition of mathematics.

SUBMITTER: Benavides-Varela S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4750023 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Numerical Activities and Information Learned at Home Link to the Exact Numeracy Skills in 5-6 Years-Old Children.

Benavides-Varela Silvia S Butterworth Brian B Burgio Francesca F Arcara Giorgio G Lucangeli Daniela D Semenza Carlo C

Frontiers in psychology 20160211

It is currently accepted that certain activities within the family environment contribute to develop early numerical skills before schooling. However, it is unknown whether this early experience influences both the exact and the approximate representation of numbers, and if so, which is more important for numerical tasks. In the present study the mathematical performance of 110 children (mean age 5 years 11 months) was evaluated using a battery that included tests of approximate and exact numeri ...[more]

PMID: 26903902

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Project description:The concept of home numeracy has been defined as parent-child interactions with numerical content. This concept started to receive increasing attention since the last decade. Most of the studies indicated that the more parents and their children engage in numerical experiences, the better children perform in mathematical tasks. However, there are also contrasting results indicating that home numeracy does not play a role or that there is a negative association between the parent-child interactions and children's mathematics performance. To shed light on these discrepancies, a systematic review searching for available articles examining the relationship between home numeracy and mathematical skills was conducted. Thirty-seven articles were retained and a p-curve analysis showed a true positive association between home numeracy and children's mathematical skills. A more qualitative investigation of the articles revealed five common findings: (1) Advanced home numeracy interactions but not basic ones are associated with children's mathematical skills. (2) Most participants in the studies were mothers, however, when both parents participated and were compared, only mothers' reports of formal home numeracy activities (i.e., explicit numeracy teaching) were linked to children's mathematical skill. (3) Formal home numeracy activities have been investigated more commonly than informal home numeracy activities (i.e., implicit numeracy teaching). (4) The number of studies that have used questionnaires to assess home numeracy is larger compared with the ones that have used observations. (5) The majority of the studies measured children's mathematical skills with comprehensive tests that index mathematical ability with one composite score rather than with specific numerical tasks. These five common findings might explain the contradictory results regarding the relationship between home numeracy and mathematical skills. Therefore, more research is necessary to draw quantitative conclusions about these five points.

Project description:A growing body of evidence suggests that the ways in which parents and preschool children interact in terms of home-based mathematics activities (i.e., the home mathematics environment; HME) is related to children's mathematics development (e.g., primarily numeracy skills and spatial skills); however, this body of evidence is mixed with some research supporting the relation and others finding null effects. Importantly, few studies have explicitly examined the factor structure of the HME and contrasted multiple hypothesized models. To develop more precise models of how the HME supports children's mathematics development, the structure of the HME needs to be examined and linked to mathematics performance. The purpose of this study was to extend prior work by replicating the factor structure of the HME (as one general HME factor and three specific factors of direct numeracy, indirect numeracy, and spatial) and using those factors to predict direct assessments of children's numeracy, mathematical language, and spatial skills. It was hypothesized that the general HME factor would be related to each direct assessment, the direct numeracy factor would be related to both numeracy and mathematical language, and the spatial factor would be related to spatial skills. Using a sample of 129 preschool children (M age = 4.71 years, SD = 0.55; 46.5% female), a series of confirmatory factor analyses were conducted. Results diverged somewhat from prior work as the best fitting model was a bifactor model with a general HME factor and two specific factors (one that combined direct and indirect numeracy activities and another of spatial activities) rather than three specific factors as had previously been found. Further, structural equation modeling analyses suggested that, in contrast to expectations, only the direct + indirect numeracy factor was a significant predictor of direct child assessments when accounting for age, sex, and parental education. These findings provide evidence that a bifactor model is important in understanding the structure of the HME, but only one specific factor is related to children's outcomes. Delineating the structure of the HME, and how specific facets of the HME relate to children's mathematics skills, provides a strong foundation for understanding and enhancing the mechanisms that support mathematics development.

Project description:According to the Home Literacy Model (Sénéchal and LeFevre, 2002, 2014), young children can be exposed to two distinct types of literacy activities at home. First, meaning-related literacy activities are those where print is present but is not the focus of the parent-child interaction, for example, when parents read storybooks to their children. In contrast, code-related literacy activities focus on the print, for example, activities such as when parents teach their children the names and sounds of letters or to read words. The present study was conducted to expand the Home Literacy Model by examining its relation with children's engagement in literacy activities at home and at school as Finnish children transitioned from kindergarten to Grades 1 and 2. Two facets of children's engagement were examined, namely, children's independent reading at home and their interest in literacy activities. Children (N = 378) were tested and interviewed at the ends of kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 2. Mothers completed questionnaires on their home literacy activities at each test time, and they reported the frequency with which their children read independently twice when children were in grade school. Tested was a longitudinal model of the hypothesized relations among maternal home literacy activities (shared reading and teaching of reading), children's reading skills, independent reading, and their interest in literacy activities/tasks as children progressed from kindergarten to Grade 2. Stringent path analyses that included all auto-regressors were conducted. Findings extended previous research in four ways. First, the frequency of shared reading and teaching of reading at home predicted the frequency of children's independent reading 1 year later. Second, children with stronger early literacy skills in kindergarten read independently more frequently once they were in Grade 1. Third, parents adapted, from kindergarten to Grade 1, their teaching behaviors to their children's progress in reading, whereas shared reading decreased over time. Fourth, children's own reports of interest in literacy activities were mostly not linked to other variables. Taken together, these results add another layer to the Home Literacy Model.

Dataset Information

Numerical Activities and Information Learned at Home Link to the Exact Numeracy Skills in 5-6 Years-Old Children.

Publications

Numerical Activities and Information Learned at Home Link to the Exact Numeracy Skills in 5-6 Years-Old Children.

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