Early numeracy and home learning environments of preschool children in Argentina

NOGUERA, IVANA; SALSA, ANALÍA

Budapest

Congreso; Budapest CEU Conference on Cognitive Development 2023; 2023

Central European University (CEU)

Interest in early numeracy has increased in recent years, as a link between early number skills and later mathematical achievement has been established. These skills are in turn related to home practices in which children exchange numerical information with their caregivers (Home Numeracy Environment, HNE). Our aim in this study was to describe the HNE of 169 Argentine children aged 3 to 5 years in terms of: (1) the frequency and type of number activities shared with adults at home in the past week; and (2) mothers’ beliefs about early mathematics. Specifically, we examined the relationships among age (3 n = 80, M = 41 months; 4 n = 51, M = 53 months; 5 n = 38, M = 67 months), gender (85 girls, 84 boys), SES, number activities, and maternal beliefs. SES groups (high n = 98; low n = 71) were determined using a Quality of Life Index, correlated with maternal education. Participants were contacted through social media and preschools, and asked to complete an adaptation of the Early Math Questionnaire (Missall et al., 2015). The first section collected demographic data. The second section included 17 numeracy activities that were to be rated individually according to how often they occurred on a 5-point Likert scale (from “never” to “more than once a day”). These activities were later rated as low (e.g., counting, estimating quantities) or high difficulty (e.g., comparisons, interpreting and producing written numbers). Finally, mothers were asked to rate their agreement with 9 math-related statements on a 4-point scale (from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”). Results show a positive correlation between age and shared activities of both high [rho(167) = .361, p