What's in a question? Parents' question use in dyadic interactions and the relation to preschool-aged children's math abilities

The intersection of parent questions, child skills, and activity context in informal science, technology, engineering, and math learning

Adult verbal input occurs frequently during parent-child interactions. However, few studies have considered how parent language varies across informal STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) activities. In this study, we examined how open and closed parent questions (a) differed across three STEM activities and (b) related to math, science, and vocabulary knowledge in their preschool-aged children. A total of 173 parents and their preschool children (Mage = 4 years) from lower socioeconomic households were video-recorded participating in three STEM-related activities: (a) a pretend grocery store activity, (b) a bridge-building challenge, and (c) a book read about a science topic. Parent questions were categorized as open or closed according to the presence of key question terms. Results indicate that the three activities elicited different frequencies of parent open and closed questions, with the grocery store activity containing the most open and closed questions. Children's science knowledge was predicted by the frequency and proportion of parent open questions during the book read. These results enhance our understanding of the role of parent questions in young children's language environments in different informal learning contexts.

Early home learning support and home mathematics environment as predictors of children's mathematical skills between age 4 and 6: A longitudinal analysis using video observations and survey data

This large-scale and longitudinal study examines early home support for learning, formal/informal home mathematics activities, and their associations with children's mathematical development between age two and six. Data were collected in Germany between 2012 and 2018, N = 1184 (49% girls, 51% boys), and 15% of children had parents with a migration history. Linguistically and mathematically stimulating, attentive, and responsive parent-child engagement at age two predicted children's mathematical skills at age four and six (small-to-medium effect size). Both formal and informal home mathematical activities at age five predicted children's mathematical skills at age six (small effect size), and were associated with children's prior mathematics attainment. This study also provides indicators where individual differences and social circumstances are relevant to understanding different early mathematics outcomes.

Exploring the role of "in the moment" and global caregiver and child factors in caregiver questioning during shared book viewing

Questions of high (vs. low) cognitive demand (CD), which encourage children to engage in abstract or critical thinking (e.g., problem solve, reason about cause-and-effect relations, make inferences), may drive relations between children's language exposure and early skills. The present study adopted a micro-analytic approach to examine caregivers' high-CD questioning with their preschool-aged children while viewing a wordless picture book (n = 121) and "in the moment" (e.g., interaction time, child responses) and global factors (e.g., caregiver education). The probability of caregivers' high-CD questioning increased with interaction time and caregiver education. Post-hoc exploratory analyses revealed that the relation between children's responses and caregivers' high-CD questioning depended on caregivers' perceptions of children's vocabulary skills. Specifically, the probability of caregivers' subsequent high-CD questioning was greater if their child did not respond previously and if caregivers perceived them to have high vocabulary skills. In contrast, caregivers' questioning remained relatively constant for responsive children across different vocabulary skills. Thus, caregivers may employ certain types of input during brief, informal learning interactions with their children by considering their own and their child's propensities and micro-level changes that occur during their conversations.

Environmental influences on mathematics performance in early childhood

Math skills relate to lifelong career, health, and financial outcomes. Individuals' own cognitive abilities predict math performance and there is growing recognition that environmental influences including differences in culture and variability in math engagement also impact math skills. In this Review, we summarize evidence indicating that differences between languages, exposure to math-focused language, socioeconomic status, attitudes and beliefs about math, and engagement with math activities influence young children's math performance. These influences play out at the community and individual level. However, research on the role of these environmental influences for foundational number skills, including understanding of number words, is limited. Future research is needed to understand individual differences in the development of early emerging math skills such as number word skills, examining to what extent different types of environmental input are necessary and how children's cognitive abilities shape the impact of environmental input.