The Relationship Between Home Math Environment And The Development Of Early Math Skills

Children’s early math achievement has a strong predictive relation with later academic abilities.Home environment provides a good opportunity for children to learn math,where home math environment plays an essential role in early math skills.However,the relationship between home math environment and early math skills is still inconsistent.One possible reason is the age.Therefore,the present study investigated the relationship between home math environment with the development of early math skills.Study 1 developed a home math activities questionnaire based on Chinese families.After interview with parents（N = 14）,exploratory factor analysis（N = 362）,confirmatory factor analysis（N = 353）and reliability and validity analyses,a home math activities questionnaire was developed with good reliability and validity,extracting four factors,namely informal activities,basic formal activities,advanced formal activities,and spatial activities.Study 2 concurrently evaluated 137 3-to-6-year-old children’s home math environment and basic number skills,arithmetic,and math achievement.It was found that for 3 years old children,home math environment had no association with math skills.For 4 years old and 5 years old above,advanced formal activities and math educational resources had significant relationship with children’s math skills.Study 3 longitudinally tested 66 3-to-4-year-old children’s math skills approximately 6 months later.It was found that for 3 years old children,advanced formal activities marginally predicted math skills.For 4 years old children,advanced formal activities positively predicted math skills.Above all,among different age groups,the relationship between home math environment and math skills is distinct.These findings can provide suggestions for parents on when and how to effectively improve children’s math skills.