Children’s SFON in relation to their numerical utterances during informal picture book reading. In S. Batchelor (Chair), Early numerical competencies in relation to informal / home experiences. Symposium at the biennial meeting of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI)

Children’s informal home numeracy experiences are uniquely predictive of early numerical development. Research to date, however, has primarily focused on children’s early numerical abilities and did not yet explore the association between children’s informal numeracy experiences and their spontaneous focusing on numerosity (SFON). This SFON tendency is hypothetically related to children’s numerical practice and reflections during informal activities and play. The present study tested the assumed association between SFON in experimental tasks and informal activities by studying children’s SFON as measured by two experimental tasks, i.e., a behavioral and a verbal SFON task, in relation to their numerical utterances during informal picture book reading. Sixty-five kindergartners were individually interviewed during two separate sessions. In a first session, they completed a behavioral SFON Imitation task, a visuo-motor buffer task, and a verbal SFON Picture task. In a second session, they participated in an informal picture book reading activity, in which they were invited to spontaneously comment on the pictures of a picture book. Based on previous findings, we expected to find a positive association between children’s SFON in the verbal task and the frequency of their numerical utterances during picture book reading, but not for the behavioral task. Confirming our hypotheses, children’s SFON in the verbal task (but not in the behavioral task) was significantly associated with the frequency of their numerical utterances during informal picture book reading. Theoretical and educational implications of these findings are discussed.status: publishe