Storytime, Meet Number Play: Early Math in the Home Matters for Later Skills

Parents have gotten the message that reading with their children can help instill lifelong literacy skills. A new study adds to the evidence that parents can be providing the same boost to numeracy skills by making sure their preschool children have an enriching math home life, too. A new study in the journal Child Development tracked nearly 370 Spanish-speaking Chilean children and their families over two years, from the start of preschool through the end of kindergarten. Regardless of families’ socioeconomic background, the study found preschoolers whose parents gave them frequent opportunities to do simple math problems and games at home showed better arithmetic growth and performance by the end of kindergarten than children with less-engaging early math environments at home.
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