Counting Connections: Exploring Preschool Numeracy, Early Interventions and Parent-Child Relationships

Early numeracy skills play an important role in children’s long-term academic success. Despite substantial evidence highlighting the critical role of home-based numeracy interactions in fostering early numeracy skills, significant gaps remain in our understanding of how family and household characteristics, as well as parent-child relationship dynamics, influence children's numeracy outcomes. This thesis, comprised of four studies, will comprehensively explore how parents currently approach numeracy learning and their perspectives on preschool numeracy interventions. It will also explore family financial and household factors beyond the standard measures of socioeconomic status that contribute to children’s numeracy outcomes. Additionally, this thesis will explore the effects of maternal well-being and the quality of the parent-child relationship on early intervention engagement and preschool numeracy outcomes.

The aim of Study 1 was to explore how mothers support their children's developing numeracy skills and adjust their numeracy practices when prompted to recognise the numeracy potential of the activity. To achieve this, the numeracy conversations of 30 mother-child dyads were observed during a laboratory task involving height and weight measurements. The children were between 37 and 46 months old (M = 41 months, SD = 3.19), and all dyads lived in the Illawarra region, NSW, Australia. Maternal scaffolding (task completion time, verbosity, and conversation turns) was positively related to children’s numeracy scores. Mothers' use of numeracy and reciprocal conversation turns predicted children’s numeracy utterances. Dyads were found to prioritise simple numbering skills, and few numeracy-related interactions were observed during the measurement task in the absence of the numeracy prompt. A bidirectional relationship between maternal and child numeracy utterances was observed when dyads received the numeracy prompt. The overall findings of Study 1 emphasise the importance of parental involvement and the critical role of interactive and responsive parent-child interactions in fostering the development of preschool numeracy skills.

Study 2 examined the effects of financial literacy and maternal encouragement of numeracy skills on the relationship between socioeconomic status (using area-level deprivation and maternal education as indicator variables) and children’s ascending and descending counting skills. Participants (N = 5839) were drawn from the longitudinal Growing up in New Zealand population cohort when children were 54 months of age. The results of the serial mediation model found that area-level deprivation and maternal education each had a direct effect on child numeracy outcomes and a simple indirect effect through financial literacy but not through maternal encouragement of numeracy. A serial mediation effect was found for the relationship between area-level deprivation and maternal education on child numeracy outcomes through a pathway of financial literacy and maternal encouragement of numeracy. Overall, the results of Study 2 highlight the necessity for interventions that extend beyond simply promoting home-based numeracy activities to encompass broader social, emotional, and economic support at a population level.

Study 3 explored mothers’ (N = 68) knowledge and perspectives on numeracy, their family's activities at home, and their preferences for a home numeracy intervention. Participating mothers completed an online survey, had children aged 3 to 5 years (M = 3.67, SD = .64) and resided in the Illawarra. Mothers primarily provided simple definitions of numeracy, had difficulty identifying the numeracy potential of many everyday home learning activities, and tended to prioritise more straightforward concepts during numeracy learning experiences. Preferred family activities were reported to vary, and a considerable proportion of mothers indicated they avoid activities when they perceive they lack the required knowledge or expertise. Lack of available time, family stress, and children’s behaviour were the most common intervention engagement obstacles reported. Mothers also demonstrated a preference for unstructured, physical, flexible, and time-limited interventions with minimal additional support. Overall, the results of Study 3 demonstrate that labour-intensive or time-consuming home learning interventions may hold little appeal for busy families.

The final study assessed the effectiveness of a community-informed preschool home numeracy intervention and explored the effects of maternal well-being and parent-child relationship qualities on intervention engagement and children’s numeracy outcomes. Using a randomised waitlist-controlled design, 24 mother-child dyads participated in a 4-week home numeracy intervention. The children were between 37 and 46 months old (M = 41 months, SD = 3.19), and all dyads lived in the Illawarra. The intervention comprised a printed resource manual developed for this research, which contained games, activities, and conversations for families (e.g., clapping games, pretend money play, estimating heights) to enhance counting, numerical relations, numeral knowledge, and arithmetic. Families in this pilot study were asked to spend at least five minutes daily on any of the activities, choosing as many or as few activities as desired across the 4-weeks. Both the experimental and waitlist control groups showed notable improvement in child numeracy scores post-intervention, with no significant difference between the groups. Maternal math anxiety negatively impacted children's numeracy scores and significantly predicted baseline performance. Maternal education, maternal anxiety, and maternal perceptions of parent-child relationship dependency collectively explained over half of the variance in improvements in child numeracy outcomes. Closeness in the parent-child relationship predicted intervention engagement. Overall, the findings of Study 4 suggest that interventions should focus on enhancing the quality of interactions and be responsive to families' emotional and relational contexts to improve preschool numeracy outcomes effectively.

Taken together, the studies within this thesis generate new knowledge about the critical role of parental and household characteristics and the impact of parent-child relationship qualities on the numeracy experiences children have at home. It also highlights the need for researchers and educators to recognise the broader needs of the family system and consider how family dynamics can influence and be used to improve preschool numeracy interventions. Specifically, these findings demonstrate that addressing economic deprivation and embedding interventions with strategies that promote parental well-being and closeness within the parent-child relationship may help to provide effective and inclusive interventions to improve numeracy outcomes for all children.