Cristina Carazza. Effects of counting books on children’s number learning: Designing a parent-led intervention

The early math knowledge gap is linked to variation in parent’s number talk. Because parents are more likely to embrace literacy than math, one potentially powerful way to introduce math learning into the home is through shared book reading. But, it is not clear which types of counting books are most effective to promote children’s number development. The proposed project will assess which features of counting books best support children’s number development through two parent-delivered intervention studies. Study 1 will compare two contrasting ways numbers are contextualized in counting books: either through a narrative and visually complex scenes that support it or simple representations that only highlight the number relevant information. Study 2 will isolate the story-telling context and complex scenes to understand which factors best support children’s learning. In both studies, children’s number knowledge will be measured during a pre-, mid-, and post-test, each scheduled two weeks apart. Families will be asked to practice with their assigned experimenter-created books at home in between the testing sessions. Analyses will measure the effects of the different practice conditions on children’s number learning over the 4-week intervention period as well as enjoyment of the books and parent’s attitudes regarding early math learning. Results will have implications for the most effective ways that shared book reading can support children’s early numerical development.

Cristina Carazza
(Psychology)