Investigating the relationship between two home numeracy measures: A questionnaire and observations during Lego building and book reading

Abstract

Home numeracy has been defined as the parent-child interactions that include experiences with numerical content in daily-life settings. Previous studies have commonly operationalized home numeracy either via questionnaires or via observational methods. These studies have shown that both types of measures are positively related to variability in children's mathematical skills. This study investigated whether these distinctive data collection methods index the same aspect of home numeracy. The frequencies of home numeracy activities and parents' opinions about their children's mathematics education were assessed via a questionnaire. The amount of home numeracy talk was observed via two semi-structured videotaped parent-child activity sessions (Lego building and book reading). Children's mathematical skills were examined with two calculation subtests. We observed that parents' reports and number of observed numeracy interactions were not related to each other. Interestingly, parents' reports of numeracy activities were positively related to children's calculation abilities, whereas the observed home numeracy talk was negatively related to children's calculation abilities. These results indicate that these two methods tap on different aspects of home numeracy. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Home numeracy, that is, parent-child interactions that include experiences with numerical content, is supposed to have a positive impact on calculation or mathematical ability in general. Despite many positive results, some studies have failed to find such an association. Home numeracy has been assessed with questionnaires on the frequency of numerical experiences and observations of parent-child interactions; however, those two measures of home numeracy have never been compared directly. What does this study add? This study assessed home numeracy through questionnaires and observations in the 44 parent-child dyads and showed that home numeracy measures derived from questionnaires and observations are not related. Moreover, the relation between the reported frequency of home numeracy activities and calculation on the one hand, and parent-child number talk (derived from observations) and calculation on the other hand is in opposite directions; the frequency of activities is positively related to calculation performance; and the amount of number talk is negatively related to calculation. This study shows that both measures tap into different aspects of home numeracy and can be an important factor explaining inconsistencies in literature.

Frequency of Home Numeracy Activities Is Differentially Related to Basic Number Processing and Calculation Skills in Kindergartners

“…Turning to our third hypothesis, the children’s pictorial calculation performance was associated with both mapping tasks and symbolic comparison task, but not with symbolic number line estimation or non-symbolic comparison and number line estimation. These findings are in line with previous studies (e.g., Holloway and Ansari, 2009 ; Mundy and Gilmore, 2009 ; Sasanguie et al, 2012a , 2013 ; Brankaer et al, 2014 ; Lyons et al, 2014 ; Vanbinst et al, 2015b ; Mutaf Yıldız et al, 2018 ; for a meta-analysis, see Schneider et al, 2017 ) indicating that in particular symbolic skills are (predictively) related to mathematics achievement. Furthermore, the absence of the relation between pictorial calculations and symbolic number line estimation can be explained by the findings of Sasanguie et al (2013) .…”

“…In fact, it is necessary to know the content and the amount of numeracy talk embedded in these home numeracy activities addressed in the questionnaire to profoundly interpret the results. A recent study showed that parents’ reports of home numeracy activities on a questionnaire and the amount of observed home numeracy talk during Lego building and book reading were not related ( Mutaf Yıldız et al, 2018 ). Moreover, parents’ self-reports of home numeracy were positively correlated with children’s calculation skills whereas parents’ numeracy talk during Lego play correlated negatively with children’s calculation scores.…”

Probing the Relationship Between Home Numeracy and Children's Mathematical Skills: A Systematic Review

“…Results showed that home numeracy assessed with a questionnaire on the one hand and with observations on the other were not correlated with each other. Moreover, this study showed that children's ( M age = 5.6 years) calculation skills positively correlated with the frequency of formal home numeracy activities measured with a questionnaire, whereas these calculation skills negatively correlated with parents' observed numeracy talk (Mutaf-Yildiz et al, 2018b ).…”

“…Only one study used both a questionnaire and semi-structured observations to measure home numeracy in Belgian families from middle to high socio-economic backgrounds (Mutaf-Yildiz et al, 2018b ). Results showed that home numeracy assessed with a questionnaire on the one hand and with observations on the other were not correlated with each other.…”

Predictors of Children’s Early Numeracy: Environmental Variables, Intergenerational Pathways, and Children’s Cognitive, Linguistic, and Non-symbolic Number Skills

“…Differences in the quality and quantity of children's early math learning opportunities have been shown to be related to their consequent math performance (Hill et al, 2005;Levine et al, 2010;Maloney et al, 2015;Tobia et al, 2016). Indeed, many pieces of evidence now indicate that parents matter in the development of children's math skills, and recognize the influential role of home numeracy activities (LeFevre et al, 2009), defined as the parent-child interactions that include experiences with numerical content in daily-life settings (Mutaf Yildiz et al, 2018b). Previous research found evidence of the usefulness of home literacy, that is, exposure to books and reading in the familiar context, in the expansion of vocabulary and decoding skills (Sénéchal and LeFevre, 2001).…”