Parental Math Input Is Not Uniformly Beneficial for Young Children: The Moderating Role of Inhibitory Control

Recent work has stressed the importance of considering child-level propensities and environmental opportunities when studying early math achievement; however, few studies investigate the interaction between these factors. This study examined whether children's inhibitory control moderates the association between parental math input and children's math performance. Parental math input via number talk and parent-reported frequencies of math activities were measured in 123 children (M-age = 3.9 years) and one of their parents. High levels of parent number talk were associated with higher math achievement among children with higher inhibitory control. This association was not seen in children with lower inhibitory control, for children's vocabulary as the outcome measure, or for parents' overall talk or parent-reported math activities as the opportunity measures. Thus, children may differentially benefit from parental math input depending on their cognitive abilities and this association is specific to parental number talk and children's math abilities. Educational Impact and Implications Statement Parents who engage in more frequent math activities and talk more about math with their young children tend to have children who show better math skills, but there are mixed results and not every study has replicated this effect. We suggest that these inconsistencies may be due to child factors that help some children benefit more than others from their parents' math input. Specifically, we find that high levels of parents' math input are only related to better math performance when their 3- to 4-year-old children are better at ignoring distractions and focusing on relevant information. This suggests that not all children benefit equally from parent math input, and so interventions promoting math input at home must also consider children's skills and characteristics rather than simply addressing parents' behaviors.

Automated summary

This study investigated the moderating role of children's inhibitory control in the association between parental math input and children's math performance. The results showed that high levels of parent number talk were associated with higher math achievement among children with higher inhibitory control. This suggests that not all children benefit equally from parental math input, and interventions promoting math input at home should consider children's cognitive abilities.