The Impact of Information, Context, and Child Gender on Parents’ Early Numeracy Input

Abstract

The current study continues efforts of previous research to effectively promote parents’ early numeracy input given the relations between parents’ early numeracy input and their children’s numeracy skills (e.g. Cheung & McBride, 2017; Vandermaas-Peeler et al., 2012). Parents (n = 60) in the current study reported their beliefs about the importance of an important early numeracy skill (i.e. magnitude comparison) for their preschooler via a survey before and after engaging in a parent-child play session. Parents played two card games with their preschooler before and after receiving information about magnitude comparison during the play session. The results indicate that parents rated magnitude comparison as significantly more important for their child after receiving the information. Parents did not provide magnitude comparison input significantly more often after receiving the information. However, parents of girls provided magnitude comparison input significantly more often after receiving the information than parents of boys, though their input before receiving the information were similar. Additionally, the frequency of parents’ magnitude comparison input were affected by the card games they played. Thus, the current study offers insightful findings on the malleability of parents’ numeracy input and beliefs. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.