Preferences for Tactile and Narrative Counting Books Across Parents with Different Education Levels

Counting books are a potential source of input for children's learning of early mathematics concepts. However, little is known about the factors that affect the counting books parents choose for their children. Parents (N = 696) of preschoolers (ages 2;6–4;11) were surveyed about their preferences for two specific counting book features, tactility and narrative quality. These two features were studied both covertly, by experimentally manipulating the types of books parents saw and asking parents why they would choose particular books, and explicitly, by asking parents to rate the importance of various factors when choosing counting books for their children. The a priori hypotheses were that parents would prefer tactile over non-tactile counting books for boys and narrative over non-narrative counting books for girls and that education level would be positively associated with counting book reading. Results did not support these hypotheses. Instead, parents’ preferences for the features depended on their education level. Higher education levels were generally associated with decreased preference for tactility and increased preference for narrative quality. Results raise the question of whether the books parents choose for their children may be one way parent education shapes children's early learning environments. © 2018 Elsevier Inc.