How Parents Read Counting Books and Non-Numerical Books to Their Preverbal Infants: An Observational Study
Studies have stressed the importance of counting with children to promote formal numeracy abilities; however little work has investigated when parents begin to engage in this behavior with their young children. In the current study, we investigated whether parents elaborated on numerical information...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2016-07-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01100/full |
| _version_ | 1811280036380016640 |
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| author | Alison Goldstein Thomas Cole Sara Cordes |
| author_facet | Alison Goldstein Thomas Cole Sara Cordes |
| author_sort | Alison Goldstein |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Studies have stressed the importance of counting with children to promote formal numeracy abilities; however little work has investigated when parents begin to engage in this behavior with their young children. In the current study, we investigated whether parents elaborated on numerical information when reading a counting book to their preverbal infants and whether developmental differences in numerical input exist even in the first year of life. Parents and their 5-10 month old infants were asked to read, as they would at home, two books to their infants: a counting book and another book that did not have numerical content. Parents’ spontaneous statements rarely focused on number and those that did consisted primarily of counting, with little emphasis on labeling the cardinality of the set. However, developmental differences were observed even in this age range, such that parents were more likely to make numerical utterances when reading to older infants. Together, results are the first to characterize naturalistic reading behaviors between parents and their preverbal infants in the context of counting books, suggesting that although counting books promote numerical language in parents, infants still receive very little in the way of numerical input before the end of the first year of life. While little is known regarding the impact of number talk on the cognitive development of young infants, the current results may guide future work in this area by providing the first assessment of the characteristics of parental numerical input to preverbal infants. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T01:06:21Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-314a84eeaae44945bfd969a493a144b9 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T01:06:21Z |
| publishDate | 2016-07-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-314a84eeaae44945bfd969a493a144b92022-12-22T03:09:20ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782016-07-01710.3389/fpsyg.2016.01100208343How Parents Read Counting Books and Non-Numerical Books to Their Preverbal Infants: An Observational StudyAlison Goldstein0Thomas Cole1Sara Cordes2University of DelawareBoston CollegeBoston CollegeStudies have stressed the importance of counting with children to promote formal numeracy abilities; however little work has investigated when parents begin to engage in this behavior with their young children. In the current study, we investigated whether parents elaborated on numerical information when reading a counting book to their preverbal infants and whether developmental differences in numerical input exist even in the first year of life. Parents and their 5-10 month old infants were asked to read, as they would at home, two books to their infants: a counting book and another book that did not have numerical content. Parents’ spontaneous statements rarely focused on number and those that did consisted primarily of counting, with little emphasis on labeling the cardinality of the set. However, developmental differences were observed even in this age range, such that parents were more likely to make numerical utterances when reading to older infants. Together, results are the first to characterize naturalistic reading behaviors between parents and their preverbal infants in the context of counting books, suggesting that although counting books promote numerical language in parents, infants still receive very little in the way of numerical input before the end of the first year of life. While little is known regarding the impact of number talk on the cognitive development of young infants, the current results may guide future work in this area by providing the first assessment of the characteristics of parental numerical input to preverbal infants.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01100/fullCountingnumerical developmentCardinalityNumerical InputCounting Books |
| spellingShingle | Alison Goldstein Thomas Cole Sara Cordes How Parents Read Counting Books and Non-Numerical Books to Their Preverbal Infants: An Observational Study Frontiers in Psychology Counting numerical development Cardinality Numerical Input Counting Books |
| title | How Parents Read Counting Books and Non-Numerical Books to Their Preverbal Infants: An Observational Study |
| title_full | How Parents Read Counting Books and Non-Numerical Books to Their Preverbal Infants: An Observational Study |
| title_fullStr | How Parents Read Counting Books and Non-Numerical Books to Their Preverbal Infants: An Observational Study |
| title_full_unstemmed | How Parents Read Counting Books and Non-Numerical Books to Their Preverbal Infants: An Observational Study |
| title_short | How Parents Read Counting Books and Non-Numerical Books to Their Preverbal Infants: An Observational Study |
| title_sort | how parents read counting books and non numerical books to their preverbal infants an observational study |
| topic | Counting numerical development Cardinality Numerical Input Counting Books |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01100/full |
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