Identifying the preschool home learning experiences that predict early number skills: Evidence from a longitudinal study

Abstract

This study examines the longitudinal relationships between home learning experiences and early number skills. The counting, number transcoding and calculation skills of 274 children were assessed in the penultimate term of preschool (Mage=4:0). Prior to these assessments, parents completed questionnaires that surveyed the frequency of the children's home learning experiences. Three types of experiences were indexed: code-focused home literacy experiences that focus on the phonological and orthographic features of language, meaning-focused home literacy experiences that focus on sharing the meaning of language and text, and home number experiences. The children's language abilities (phonological awareness and vocabulary) and nonverbal abilities (inhibitory control and nonverbal reasoning) were assessed in the final term of preschool (Mage=4:3). Their number skills were reassessed in the final term of the first year of primary school (Mage=5:3). Home letter-sound interaction experiences (interactive code-focused literacy experiences) had significant longitudinal relationships with counting and number transcoding that were independent of language and nonverbal abilities. The relationship between letter-sound interaction experiences and later counting was also independent of the autoregressive influence of baseline counting ability. We extend previous findings by demonstrating that interactive code-focused home literacy experiences in the preschool period predict growth in counting skills even when a broad range of language and cognitive abilities are controlled.