The relative importance of “parental talk” as a predictor of the diversity in mathematics learning in young children

This study explored the importance of the amount of “parental talk” focusing on numerical cues as “opportunity factor” in the prediction of diversity in mathematics learning. Thirty-one children were followed up from toddlerhood (24 months of age) till kindergarten (48 months of age). Mathematics learning was tested with a number discrimination task at 24 months. At 48 months children’s mathematics learning was examined with a procedural and conceptual counting task and a calculation task. The amount of parental talk was operationalized via a questionnaire and via a structured play Duplo or Lego building session. The study confirmed a substantial amount of diversity in the frequency of parental talk with the results of the questionnaire and the observation positively related to each other. A positive concurrent association was found between the amount of observed parental talk and children’s calculation skills in kindergarten. Parental talk with toddlers was also positively predicting children’s mathematics learning in kindergarten. There was a trend of positive association between the amount of parental talk with toddlers and children’s conceptual counting abilities in kindergarten. There was a positive quadratic predictive contribution of parental talk in toddlers for “calculation” in kindergarten. These results confirmed that mathematics learning might not be unitary even in young children and that parental talk should be considered as one of the opportunity factors to explain some of the diversities in mathematics learning.