Improving Preschoolers’ Math Skills by Designing Math Interventions for Family Routines and Children’s Math Skills

Many caregivers of pre-school aged children find family math programs burdensome, which decreases engagement, sustainability, and ultimately the success of the programs. This is particularly the case for families that face opportunity gaps in math education. This project aims to test whether two low-touch, high-benefit family math programs improve family math engagement and preschool-aged children's math skills. Both programs are tailored to each family's daily routines, do not require specific materials, and provide examples of real families doing math. One of these programs additionally aligns its content to the child's math skills. The project will provide foundational knowledge about effective ways to increase and sustain family math engagement. These studies have the potential to decrease the burden for families, and increase the benefits of math programs on children's immediate and long-term math outcomes, which are critical for later math achievement and entering STEM careers. Using an experimental design, this project examines the impacts of two family-math programs in 160 4-year-olds and their parents. The first condition will deploy the "Math Made 4 Me" intervention, which is designed to support math via typical family routines. The second condition will deploy an enhanced version of the "Math Made 4 Me" intervention, "Math Made 4 Me Plus," which simultaneously tailors this support to each family's typical routines and to the child's math skills. An active control condition provides families with supports to develop children's social-cognitive skills. The project aims to address: 1) whether receiving the "Math Made 4 Me" or "Math Made 4 Me Plus" interventions increase family math engagement and children's math skills relative to receiving the control condition; and 2) whether receiving the "Math Made 4 Me +Plus" increases family math engagement and children's math skills beyond the potential impact of the "Math Made 4 Me" intervention. The project will collect survey and observational data from families and direct assessments of skills in children at three time points: pre-test, recent post-test (2 weeks after program completion) and delayed post-test (3 months after program completion). These family math programs leverage the important role that everyday routines play in math development and have the potential to: a) decrease the burden for families; and b) result in more successful and sustained positive math outcomes for preschoolers, which are critical for later math achievement and entering STEM careers. This project is supported by NSF's EDU Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes basic research in STEM education that generates fundamental knowledge in the field. The program invests in key areas crucial that are essential, broad and have long-term impact: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and developing the STEM workforce. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.