= 76) to play with a number-related board game, an active control board game, or a business-as-usual control group. Controlling for number knowledge, inhibitory control, and vocabulary at pretest, no differences in math skills at posttest were observed between the training groups. However, a significant interaction emerged between training group assignment and number knowledge, such that children with higher pretest number knowledge had higher posttest math scores when assigned to the number board game condition compared to the two control conditions, but no differences among conditions were seen for children with lower number knowledge. Collectively, these findings suggest that math activities may be most beneficial for math skills when children have stronger number knowledge and underscore the need for tailoring activities to children's current skill level. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

IntroductionCurrent research has documented the home math environment (HME) of preschoolers and kindergarteners. Very few studies, however, have explored the number and spatial activities in which parents engage with children during their toddler years. MethodsThis study examined the HME of 157 toddlers using several methodologies, including surveys, time diaries, and observations of math talk. Further, it examined correlations within and across data sources to identify areas of convergence and triangulation, and correlated HME measures with measures of toddlers' number and spatial skills. ResultsFindings showed that, in general, uses of different types of math activities, including both number and spatial, were intercorrelated within method. Across methods, there was high intercorrelation between the frequency of math activities reported on parent surveys and the diversity of types of math activities endorsed in time diary interviews. Parent math talk gleaned from semi-structured interviews functioned as a separate aspect of the HME; different types of math talk shared few intercorrelations with engagement in math activities as reported in either surveys or time diaries. Finally, several HME measures positively correlated with toddlers' math skills. DiscussionGiven extant research demonstrating that both math activities and math talk predict children's math skills, our results stress the need for multimethod studies that differentiate among these HME opportunities.

A growing body of research has examined parents' practices to support their young children's number learning at home, that is, the home numeracy environment. Many of these studies focus on formal and informal domains of numeracy activities, which are inconsistently defined and related to children's math learning. In this study, we explore dimensions of the home numeracy environment and examine their relations with children's math skills among a sample of 4-year-old children and their parents over the course of 1 year. Parents reported on the frequency of 21 numeracy activities when children were 4 and 5. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed a 2-factors solution: number-related play activities and use of educational materials with numbers. Frequency of play with numbers was positively related to children's ability to solve applied math problems at age 5, controlling for prior number skills, child age, and socioeconomic status. In contrast, neither measure of the home numeracy environment predicted symbolic number knowledge or non-symbolic number sense when controlling for covariates. These findings underscore the need to differentiate between factors of the home numeracy environment and to develop clear theoretical definitions of these factors.(c) 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Extensive literature has documented socioeconomic status (SES) disparities in young children's standardized math achievement, which primarily reflect differences in basic number and arithmetic skills. In addition, growing evidence indicates that direct assessments of executive function (EF) both predict standardized math achievement and mediate SES differences in standardized math tests. However, early spatial skills and children's approximate number system (ANS) acuity, critical components of later math competence, have been largely absent in this past research. The current study examined SES associations with multiple direct assessments of early ANS, cardinality, and spatial skills, as well as standardized math achievement, in a socioeconomically diverse sample of 4-year-old children (N = 149). Structural equation modeling revealed SES effect sizes of .21 for geometric sensitivity skills, .23 for ANS acuity, .39 for cardinality skills, and .28 for standardized math achievement. Furthermore, relations between SES and children's spatial skills, ANS acuity, cardinality, and standardized math skills were mediated by a composite measure of children's EF skills. Implications of pervasive SES disparities across multiple domains of early math development, as well as the mitigating role of EF, are discussed.(c) 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Prior research has shown associations between parent and teacher feedback and school-aged children’s academic outcomes. Specifically, studies have demonstrated that positive feedback (i.e., praise and/or affirmation) is beneficial for children’s academic outcomes, while corrective feedback exhibits more mixed associations with children’s academic outcomes. Little is known about the relations between parental feedback and younger children’s academic skills. The present study examines the frequency of positive and corrective types of feedback provided by parents of 4-year-old children during semi-structured interactions, as well as how these feedback types relate to children’s concurrent math and language skills and their change in math skills over a one-year period. Parent-child dyads (n=91) were observed interacting with a picture book, grocery store set, and magnet board puzzle for 5 to 10 minutes each, after which they completed math and language assessments. Parental affirmation was positively and corrective feedback was negatively associated with children’s concurrent math outcomes, but only corrective feedback was uniquely negatively associated with children’s math outcomes when controlling for affirmations. Parental praise was individually and uniquely positively associated with children’s expressive vocabulary and change in math outcomes from age 4 to age 5. This study suggests that the relations between parental feedback and young children’s academic outcomes depend on the type of feedback and the outcome of interest (i.e., math vs language), which can inform how parents may want to provide feedback to facilitate learning.

A growing body of research has examined how children's self-regulation during early and middle childhood mediates SES disparities in academic achievement. Evidence suggests that these self -regulation skills begin developing even earlier, during the toddler years, but more work is needed examining how different measures of self-regulation relate to key constructs such as so-cioeconomic status (SES) and toddlers' pre-academic skills. In this online study, we examine multiple approaches to measuring self-regulation using confirmatory factor analyses and assess the extent to which self-regulatory skills help explain SES differences in early math and language skills among a sample of 158 two-and three-year-old children. Self-regulation was assessed through a battery of parent-and examiner-ratings. Children's counting, cardinality, and vocab-ulary skills were measured online through direct assessments and parent surveys. Two self -regulation factors emerged representing parent-reported and observational measures, and only observational measures of self-regulation mediated associations between SES and children's math and language skills. Parent-reported self-regulation was not uniquely related to SES or children's pre-academic skills, underscoring the need for careful consideration of how self-regulation is measured among toddlers when examining its associations with pre-academic skills.

Children's play time has declined in recent decades, which could negatively impact early self-regulation-a vital component of school readiness. To date, studies have not fully explored how the time spent playing relates to children's self-regulatory skills, and in turn, their early reading and math competencies. Using data from time diaries and direct assessments of self-regulation, prereading, and math skills, this study examined how minutes spent playing at home predict these skills in a sample of 128 children followed from age four to five. Additionally, it considered whether self-regulation explained links between play time and prereading and math. Results showed that the time spent playing positively related to children's self-regulation. Moreover, through its association with self-regulation, play time had indirect effects on prereading and math skills measured one year later. Results suggest that fostering opportunities for play time during the preschool years may help to boost school readiness skills.

Recent evidence suggests that infants and toddlers may recognize counting as numerically relevant long before they are able to count or understand the cardinal meaning of number words. The Give-N task, which asks children to produce sets of objects in different quantities, is commonly used to test children’s cardinal number knowledge and understanding of exact number words but does not capture children’s preliminary understanding of number words and is difficult to administer remotely. Here, we asked whether toddlers correctly map number words to the referred quantities in a two-alternative forced choice Point-to-X task (e.g., “Which has three?”). Two- to three-year-old toddlers ( N = 100) completed a Give-N task and a Point-to-X task through in-person testing or online via videoconferencing software. Across number-word trials in Point-to-X, toddlers pointed to the correct image more often than predicted by chance, indicating that they had some understanding of the prompted number word that allowed them to rule out incorrect responses, despite limited understanding of exact cardinal values. No differences in Point-to-X performance were seen for children tested in-person versus remotely. Children with better understanding of exact number words as indicated on the Give-N task also answered more trials correctly in Point-to-X. Critically, in-depth analyses of Point-to-X performance for children who were identified as 1- or 2-knowers on Give-N showed that 1-knowers do not show a preliminary understanding of numbers above their knower-level, whereas 2-knowers do. As researchers move to administering assessments remotely, the Point-to-X task promises to be an easy-to-administer alternative to Give-N for measuring children’s emerging number knowledge and capturing nuances in children’s number-word knowledge that Give-N may miss.

The cognitive complexity of adults' questions, particularly during shared book reading, supports children's developing language skills. Questions can be described as having low cognitive demand (CD; e.g., labeling, matching) or high-CD (e.g., comparing, predicting). Little is known about the relation between different types of parental questioning and children's math abilities. The current study examined the quantity of low- and high-CD and domainspecific math questions that parents posed to their 4-year-old children in three structured activities and how the frequency of those questions relates to children's concurrent math and language skills. Parent-child dyads (n = 121) were observed interacting with a picture book, grocery store toys, and a puzzle for about 5 min each, and children completed math and spatial assessments. Although the frequency with which parents asked questions did not relate to children's outcomes, parents' use of high-CD questions was associated with children's spatial skills, standardized math scores, and vocabulary skills after controlling for parental utterances, child utterances, child age, and family socioeconomic status. However, domain-specific math questions were not related to any child outcomes above and beyond parents' total questions. This study suggests that domain-general questions that vary in CD (low and high) are differentially related to children's math and language abilities, which can inform the ways in which parents engage in early learning opportunities with their children. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Past research has examined parental support for math during early childhood using parent-report surveys and observational measures of math talk. However, since most studies only present findings from one of these methods, the construct (parental support for early math) and the method are inextricably linked, and we know little about whether these methods provide similar or unique information about children's exposure to math concepts. This study directly addresses the mono-operation bias operating in past research by collecting and comparing multiple measures of support for number and spatial skills, including math talk during semi-structured observations of parent-child interactions, parent reports on a home math activities questionnaire, and time diaries. Findings from 128 parents of 4-year-old children reveal substantial within-measure variability across all three data sources in the frequency of number and spatial activities and the type and content of parent talk about number and spatial concepts. Convergence in parental math support measures was evident among parent reports from the questionnaire and time diaries, such that scale composites about monthly number activities were related to number activities on the previous work day, and monthly spatial activities were correlated with spatial activities the prior non-work days. However, few parent report measures from the survey or time diary were significantly correlated with observed quantity or type of math talk in the semi-structured observations. Future research implications of these findings are discussed.