Fostering Parental Support for Children's Mathematical Development: An Intervention with Head Start Families

Early mathematical experiences: observing young Black and White children’s everyday activities

“…As Fuson (1988, p. 15) noted, there is "little research on the kind and range of experiences young children have with number words," a view echoed more recently by Starkey and Klein (2000) in relation to mathematical activities in general. With the exception of some of the work in the sociocultural tradition (Greenfield & Lave, 1982;Lave, 1988;Nunes, 1995Nunes, , 1999Saxe, 1991;Schliemann, Carraher, & Ceci, 1997), most of the research that describes mathematical experiences outside the laboratory is based on observations involving children engaged in rather structured tasks or in short periods of free play involving mathematical objects (e.g., Durkin, Shire, Riem, Crowther, & Rutter, 1986;Wagner & Walters, 1982).…”

“…For example, Starkey, Klein, and their colleagues (Starkey & Klein, 2000;Starkey et al, 1999) found that middle-class parents reported providing more mathematics activities to their children than did working-class parents, and Saxe and his colleagues (1987) found that middle-class mothers reported that their children engaged in more complex mathematical experiences more often than did working-class mothers. However, Ginsburg and Russell (1981) found no significant variation on performance for a variety of mathematical tasks for children from workingversus middle-class families, and Ginsburg et al (1998) reported that although "many economically disadvantaged children enter school less than fully prepared to learn formal mathematics" (p. 425) the data provide little evidence that children from different socioeconomic groups have had significantly different mathematical experiences.…”

“…However, Ginsburg and Russell (1981) found no significant variation on performance for a variety of mathematical tasks for children from workingversus middle-class families, and Ginsburg et al (1998) reported that although "many economically disadvantaged children enter school less than fully prepared to learn formal mathematics" (p. 425) the data provide little evidence that children from different socioeconomic groups have had significantly different mathematical experiences. Low-income mothers, however, tend to believe that preschool teachers are responsible for providing instruction in mathematics (Holloway, Rambaud, Fuller, & Eggers-Pierola, 1995;Starkey & Klein, 2000).…”

Two is greater than three: effects of older siblings on parental support of preschoolers’ counting in middle-income families

“…Increasingly, these skills include counting and other types of numerical understanding. The results of this study add to a expanding body of evidence that young children's everyday experiences include numerous opportunities to learn about number, parents are motivated to promote their children's numeracy skills, and that under optimal conditions (which may sometimes include modeling and training) parents are remarkably adept at structuring tasks so as to advance children's numeracy skills (Starkey & Klein, 2000).…”

“…Some children are highly proficient at numeracy skills such as counting from the outset of school, yet others have further to go to reach the same level of competency as their counterparts (Case, Griffin, & Kelly, 2001). For instance, Starkey and Klein (2000), reported in Ginsburg, Choy, Lopez, Netley, and Chao-Yuan (1997) found striking differences between low-and middle-income preschoolers in their ability to count objects, solve conservation problems, add with objects, and compare the sizes of numbers presented orally. Other studies comparing low-and middle-income children (Griffin, Case, & Siegler, 1994;Jordan, Huttenlocher, & Levine, 1992;Kirk, Hunt, & Volkmar, 1975) as well as cross-cultural comparisons of early counting and arithmetic abilities (e.g., Geary, Bow-Thomas, Liu, & Siegler, 1996) suggest that differences in the amount or types of experiences children have with number during the preschool years may underlie differences in early counting and other numeracy skills.…”