The association between home numeracy and children’s calculation skills is mediated by basic number processing

The present study investigated the association between kindergarteners’ home numeracy activities, their basic number processing and calculation skills. Participants were 128 kindergarteners (mean age = 5.4 years) and their parents. The children completed non-symbolic and symbolic comparison, non-symbolic and symbolic number line estimation, enumeration and connecting tasks, and a calculation test. Their parents completed a questionnaire regarding the frequency of the numeracy activities that they get engaged in with their children at home. The mediation analysis demonstrated that formal home numeracy activities (i.e. number practices) were associated with calculation skills only through the effects of mapping skills (i.e. enumeration and connecting). The results suggest that when parents practice numbers with their children (e.g. via counting objects or identifying names of written numerals), this seems particularly relevant for the children’s mapping skills and in turn also for their calculation skills.status: publishe