Unpacking the home numeracy environment: Examining dimensions of number activities in early childhood

A growing body of research has examined parents' practices to support their young children's number learning at home, that is, the home numeracy environment. Many of these studies focus on formal and informal domains of numeracy activities, which are inconsistently defined and related to children's math learning. In this study, we explore dimensions of the home numeracy environment and examine their relations with children's math skills among a sample of 4-year-old children and their parents over the course of 1 year. Parents reported on the frequency of 21 numeracy activities when children were 4 and 5. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed a 2-factors solution: number-related play activities and use of educational materials with numbers. Frequency of play with numbers was positively related to children's ability to solve applied math problems at age 5, controlling for prior number skills, child age, and socioeconomic status. In contrast, neither measure of the home numeracy environment predicted symbolic number knowledge or non-symbolic number sense when controlling for covariates. These findings underscore the need to differentiate between factors of the home numeracy environment and to develop clear theoretical definitions of these factors.(c) 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.