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Are children’s spontaneous number focusing tendencies related to their home numeracy environment?

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Abstract

Young children show large individual differences in their tendency to focus spontaneously on numerical aspects (e.g., numerosities or Arabic number symbols) of their everyday environment. The origins of these individual differences are unclear. Given the role of the home numeracy environment (HNE) in children’s early mathematical development and the assumed link between children’s spontaneous number focusing tendencies and their numerical behavior in everyday life, it is plausible that children’s spontaneous focusing tendencies are related to their HNE. The present study aimed to test this hypothesis by longitudinally investigating children’s spontaneous focusing on numerosity (SFON) and spontaneous focusing on Arabic number symbols (SFONS) in relation to their HNE. Participants were 128 children (4- to 5-year-olds), who were followed from the second until the third year of Flemish kindergarten. In both kindergarten years, children completed a SFON and SFONS Picture task while their parents completed a home numeracy questionnaire. Correlation analyses and structural equation modeling revealed no significant associations between children’s spontaneous number focusing tendencies and their HNE, neither in second nor in third year of kindergarten. This finding suggests that children’s spontaneous number focusing tendencies are not per se related to their HNE. Various possible explanations for this unexpected finding are discussed and directions for further research on this relationship are suggested.

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Notes

  1. In Flanders (Belgium), kindergarten consists of 3 years and starts at the age of 2.5 years and ends at the age of 6 years. At the age of 6 years, children enter first grade of primary education and start to receive formal instruction in mathematics and reading.

  2. We contend that this delay (of about 6 months) in the collection of the HNE data had no substantial impact on our findings, because several findings of the present study suggest that children’s HNE remained rather stable across time. First, we found no significant differences in parents’ numeracy activities and expectations between the two kindergarten years, except for two expectation items and one activity item. Second, we observed significant associations between parents’ numeracy activities in K2 and K3 and between parents’ numeracy expectations in K2 and K3. Third, the (absence of an) association between children’s spontaneous number focusing tendencies and their HNE did not differ between the two kindergarten years.

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Acknowledgements

Sanne Rathé is a PhD Fellow of the Research Foundation—Flanders (FWO). We would like to thank all children, parents, schools, and teachers for their participation. Special thanks to Xan Boen for designing the pictures of the Picture tasks.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Instructional Psychology and Technology, KU Leuven, Dekenstraat 2, Postbox 3773, 3000, Leuven, Belgium

    Sanne Rathé, Joke Torbeyns & Lieven Verschaffel

  2. Parenting and Special Education Research Unit, KU Leuven, Leopold Vanderkelenstraat 32, 3000, Leuven, Belgium

    Bert De Smedt

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  1. Sanne Rathé
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  2. Joke Torbeyns
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Correspondence to Sanne Rathé.

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Appendix: Home numeracy questionnaire

Appendix: Home numeracy questionnaire

Parent numeracy expectations

How important is it for you that your child masters the following competencies at the start of first grade?

(cross 1 box that correctly indicates your answer)

 

Not at all important

Not important

Important

Very important

Reciting the number sequence up to 10 (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4, …)

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Reciting the number sequence up to 100 (e.g., 10, 11, 12, 13, …)

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Counting up to 10 objects (e.g., counting 3 candies)

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Counting more than 10 objects (e.g., counting 12 cubes)

☐

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Reading written number symbols (e.g., 3)

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Writing number symbols (e.g., 2)

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Solving sums up to 10 (e.g., 2 + 2)

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Parent numeracy activities

How often do you engage in the following activities together with your child?

(cross 1 box that correctly indicates your answer)

 

Never

Less than once a week

Once a week

More than once a week

Every day

Playing games that require counting or elementary computations (e.g., Goose game)

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Playing computer or tablet games that require counting or elementary computations (e.g., Miffy plays with numbers)

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Reading picture books that include numbers, counting or elementary computations (e.g., The numeral shop [Het cijferwinkeltje])

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Singing counting rhymes or counting songs (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4 a paper hat [1, 2, 3, 4 een hoedje van papier])

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Counting or elementary calculations during daily activities (e.g., counting the number of apples during cooking)

☐

☐

☐

☐

☐

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Rathé, S., Torbeyns, J., De Smedt, B. et al. Are children’s spontaneous number focusing tendencies related to their home numeracy environment?. ZDM Mathematics Education 52, 729–742 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-020-01127-z

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