The Deseret News – Menachem Wecker
“Mothers who discuss simple arithmetic with their preschoolers at the dinner table can improve their children’s grasp of math. That’s according to a new study by researchers at Chile’s Pontifical Catholic University and at University of Michigan. The study is part of a broader effort to bring the kind of focus on early literacy to mathematics, says co-author Pamela Davis-Kean, associate professor of psychology at the University of Michigan and director of its Center for the Analyses of Pathways from Childhood to Adulthood. “I think many researchers thought of math as ‘taught’ rather than something that is also based on early interactions, as we know occurs with literacy and reading,” she says. The study — of which Davis’ former student, María Inés Susperreguy, an assistant professor at the Chilean school, is lead author — tracked 40 families over a three-day period and recorded their conversations. The mothers filled out surveys about their education and household income, and then a year later they evaluated their children’s math skills.”(more)