Parents’ use of number talk with young children: Comparing methods, family factors, activity contexts, and relations to math skills

Abstract

Variability in children's early math skills may stem from differences in experienced math learning opportunities at home. Previous studies have quantified math-learning opportunities at home through engagement with math-related activities or exposure to number talk during parent-child conversations, but little is known about how specific activities relate to talk about math. The current study aims to explore how math activities and number talk occur at home and understand how these associations may vary across different types of families. Number talk was quantified for 97 parent-child dyads during in-lab and in-home play sessions. Results show that time spent in math-related activities during home observations was related to parent reports of math activities as well as parent number talk at home and in the lab. Interestingly, during non-math-related activities, we found that parents with higher education levels and parents of boys used more number talk than parents with lower education levels and parents of girls. During math-related activities, however, no such educational or gender differences were seen in number talk. These results highlight the importance of considering the contextual influences and constraints that affect children's opportunities for learning math, especially when designing interventions to increase math learning in families’ homes.