Early Childhood Educ J

DOI 10.1007/s10643-013-0604-7

The Role of Child Interests and Collaborative ParentChild

Interactions in Fostering Numeracy and Literacy Development
in Canadian Homes
Ivanna K. Lukie Sheri-Lynn Skwarchuk
Jo-Anne LeFevre Carla Sowinski

 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

Abstract Childrens involvement in home literacy and

numeracy activities has been linked to school achievement,
but the subtleties in the home environment responsible for
these gains have yet to be thoroughly investigated. The
purpose of this study was to determine how childrens
interests and collaborative parentchild interactions affect
exposure to home literacy and numeracy activities. Parents
of 170 four-to-five year old children completed a survey
about their childs home learning environment. They rated
their childrens interests in 14 activities, and the extent of
parentchild collaboration on a cooking and card-making
task. Follow up interviews were also initiated with four
mothers to provide validation of the survey data in
numeracy. Factor analyses reduced the number of survey
items. Parents whose children preferred exploratory, active
or crafts activities reported frequent engagement in literacy
and numeracy activities. Parents seeking a collaborative
approach during activities reported increased exposure to
home literacy and numeracy activities than families with
less collaborative involvement. Interview data confirmed
that parents of children with high numeracy scores were
exposing their children to rich numeracy activities during
play. The findings suggest that childrens interests and
collaborative parentchild involvement impact literacy and
numeracy exposure in the home.

Keywords Numeracy
Literacy
Home

environment
Parentchild interaction
Interests

Introduction
Early exposure to literacy and numeracy concepts before
school onset provides an important foundation for later
academic skills development (Duncan et al. 2007; BlevinsKnabe 2008; Senechal and LeFevre 2002; LeFevre et al.
2009a, 2010). Despite these findings, individual differences
in home environments abound, and researchers have begun
to identify home contextual factors that may explain why
exposure to academic concepts is easier in some homes
than in others. The purpose of the current project is to
determine how childrens interests and parents interaction
styles affect home literacy and numeracy activity choices.
Under some circumstances, and despite parents best
intentions, children may not partake in an activity unless it
suits the childs personal interests; and/or certain activity
interests may provide better opportunities for literacy and
numeracy content exposure than others. Parent interaction
styles may also affect the delivery and context in which
academic content is introduced.
Childrens Interests

I. K. Lukie
University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
S.-L. Skwarchuk (&)
University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Canada
e-mail: s.skwarchuk@uwinnipeg.ca
J.-A. LeFevre
C. Sowinski
Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada

As children are exposed to a range of toys and activities,

playmates, and play settings, they develop personal preferences (Johnson et al. 2004). Having personal interests are
common, and some preschoolers develop extreme interests
(e.g., dinosaurs) (DeLoache et al. 2007). Neitzel et al.
(2008) have found that interests are associated with schematic knowledge development. Parents play a role in the
development and maintenance of interests, by providing

123

Early Childhood Educ J

interest-related activities and materials (Leibham et al.

2005).
Interests provide positive learning opportunities (Hidi
and Renninger 2006), such as enhancing sustained attention (Hidi et al. 2004), goal setting (Senko and Harackiewicz 2002), processing (Schiefele and Krapp 1996),
and categorical knowledge (Chi and Koeske 1983). Studies
have also demonstrated relations among specific child
interests and cognitive skills development. Musical
involvement was associated with spatialtemporal reasoning (Hetland 2000) and intelligence (Schellenberg 2004).
Block building, bike riding, and water play were related to
spatial awareness and physics concepts, integral to problem
solving and numerical reasoning (Kamii and DeVries
1993). Printing letters and storybook reading were associated with language development, reading achievement
(e.g., Baroody and Diamond 2010) and literacy knowledge
(Martini and Senechal 2012). Fisher et al. (2012) reported a
positive relationship between childrens interests and math
skill.
Collaborative ParentChild Interactions
A second factor to be explored is the role that parents play
in the learning environment. Models of community building for fostering childrens development in schools include
a parental involvement component (e.g., Turnbull et al.
2011). Parental involvement has been positively associated
with academic achievement (e.g., Duncan et al. 2007) and
school preparedness (Pianta et al. 1997); it also serves as a
buffer against risk factors such as low parent education
(Dearing et al. 2006). Nevertheless, it is unclear how parents are involved in relation to these positive school
effects, and scholars have noted that there is no consistent
definition of parental involvement (Fan and Chen 2001).
As contributors to childrens learning environments,
parents and educators are guided by their attitudes
(Blevins-Knabe 2008; Skwarchuk 2009), beliefs (MusunMiller and Blevins-Knabe 1998) and expectations
(LeFevre et al. 2010), and parents use different styles to
guide children through learning (Baumrind 1966). Parent
philosophies differ in regards to the quality of parent
child interactions that occur during home activities. For
example, a parent may set out materials, directing a child
to go play, while intentionally respecting the childs
free time, curiosity, and play space. Alternatively, a parent may choose to interact collaboratively with her or his
child on a task. It would be beneficial to determine
whether collaborative parentchild interactions afford
opportunities for early learning.
A few studies have shown that collaborative parent
child interaction styles are related to childrens literacy and
numeracy outcomes. Collaborative approaches involving

123

teaching as opposed to telling parenting styles (Hess and

McDevitt 1984) are encouraged to create meaningful
conversations (Bowman and Treiman 2004), enthusiasm,
and sustained attention (Fan and Chen 2001). Conversely,
unassisted discovery learning has been found to limit
problem solving and conservation strategy development,
and understanding of complex material such as computer
programming languages (Mayer 2004). As a result, collaborative styles may provide opportunities for literacy and
numeracy learning.
Research has shown that parents spend small amounts of
time engaged in academic activities with their children;
and even fewer of these experiences include numeracy
versus literacy activities (Tudge and Doucet 2004). Parents
may spend less time on numeracy activities, possibly
because they place less value on numeracy activities
(Blevins-Knabe and Musun-Miller 1996; LeFevre et al.
2009a, b), they display negative attitudes toward numeracy,
and report lower confidence with numeracy (LeFevre et al.
2010) and lack goals (Cannon and Ginsburg 2008) compared to literacy activities. Further study of the ways in
which parents can be helpful to their children may lead to
awareness of how parents can facilitate both early literacy
and numeracy opportunities in the home.
Current Study
It has been established that the home environment affects
early learning opportunities and cognitive development.
Parents have been encouraged to read to their children and
engage in numeracy activities, because of the benefits
documented by research. However, further research is
needed to understand the role that childrens personal
interests contribute to literacy and numeracy knowledge,
and the ways in which parents can be involved in
enhancing development.
In this study, we related childrens interests and parent
child interaction styles to the frequency of home literacy
and numeracy activities. To understand the relations
between childrens interests and their exposure to various
activities, parents rated their childrens interest in 14
common preschool activities. It was hypothesized that
children who were interested in an eclectic range of
activities allowing them to explore personally relevant
domains would encounter opportunities for literacy and
numeracy learning. However, pursuing an interest is often
dependent on collaboration with parents. Thus, parents also
rated collaborative involvement during two scenarios. It
was hypothesized that parents who provided collaborative
involvement opportunities would provide more frequent
home literacy and numeracy activities. Interview data were
used to substantiate the survey data on home numeracy
practices (as home numeracy has been studied less

Early Childhood Educ J

Parents (148 mothers, 22 fathers) of 170 preschoolers (94

boys, 76 girls) were recruited from childcare centres, preschools, playgroups, an early learning program, and a
preschool wellness fair in 2008 or 2009 from all geographic areas of a large Canadian city and all gave
informed consent. Children ranged in age from 63 to
77 months of age, M = 70.0, SD = 3.3, all were born in
2003. Median family income (based on postal code data)
ranged from $28,135 to $145,472. All but three families
reported English as their first language at home. Most
children attended an early learning/child care program on a
full-time (43.8 %) or part-time basis (28.2 %).
From this sample, four mothers participated in a 40-min
in-person interview 2 years later, in their homes or at a
university lounge. The four mothers were married, working
part-time and ranged in age from 37 to 39 years. The
families were selected to ensure there were mothers of two
girls and two boys, from similar (average) income backgrounds. These families were chosen as they also had a
younger preschool aged sibling to ensure parents continued familiarity with preschool activities. The childrens
mathematics scores (obtained from another part of the
project) were checked to ensure there was diversity in child
achievement. Two families had children with high
numeracy scores, and two of the children had low
numeracy scores.

representing formal literacy activities and the other formal

numeracy activities. The literacy items included: read
words; point to letters/words while reading; recognize
printed letters; identify words on signs; teach letter sounds;
introduce new words and definitions; sing/recite the
alphabet; and create rhymes in songs. The numeracy items
included: learn simple sums; encourage math in head; talk
about clocks and calendars; weigh, measure and compare
quantities; play counting, adding, subtracting games; recognize printed numbers; sort and classify by color, shape
and size; ask about quantities; play board games or cards;
encourage collecting; recite numbers in order; and sing
counting songs. Principal components analyses were used
to create two factor scores, one for numeracy and one for
literacy. The frequency of these literacy and numeracy
activities has been predictive of literacy and numeracy
outcomes in previous work (LeFevre et al. 2009a, b).
To measure childrens interests, parents rated the
extent to which their child preferred certain activities on a
weekly basis, on a five-point scale (Rarely, Sometimes,
Often, Very Often All the Time). Activities included: arts/
crafts, colouring, individual and group sports, puzzles,
musical instrument involvement, reading with an adult or
alone, board/card games, building, pretend play, printing
letters/numbers, computer/video games, and watching
television. To measure parentchild collaborations, the
same scale was used to rate the extent to which parents
interacted with their child during two scenarios involving
cooking and card making. Cooking questions were: My
child watches while I measure and stir ingredients, My
child adds and stirs ingredients that I measure, During
cooking we discuss measurement terms, and My child
does most of the measuring, with some help. Card
making questions were: My child chooses cards and
decorates them, I do most of the printing and discuss
spelling, My child makes the card his/herself, and
My child does all of the printing.

Materials

Interviews

Parent Questionnaire

To support the survey responses, four mother interviewees

were asked 15 questions about their home numeracy
environment. Topics included: family rules (e.g., How are
rules enforced at home?), free time (e.g., How much free
play time occurs?), interests (e.g., What are your childs
favourite activities?), philosophies (e.g., Do you emphasize
educational goals?), playtime limitations (e.g., What
obstacles do you face supporting your childs pursuit of
information?), and parental collaboration (e.g., Do you
control playtime goals?). Interviews were transcribed and
themes were identified using constant comparative
analysis.

extensively than home literacy practices). The current

study, which was reviewed and approved by a university
ethics committee, was part of a longitudinal investigation
examining the relation between the home environment and
academic development.

Method
Participants

All 170 parents completed a seven-page on-line or paper

questionnaire about their preschoolers home learning
environment. Because the focus of the present analysis is
on child interests and parental involvement affecting academic activities in the home, only these items from the
survey are described. Parents indicated the extent to which
they involved their children (ranging from rarely/never to
most days per week) in a variety of literacy and numeracy
related activities. Based on preliminary analyses, two
composite measures were created for the present work: one

123

Early Childhood Educ J

Active component, which seemed anomalous). Alphas are

shown in Table 2 (on diagonals). Scales had acceptable
internal consistency, with the exception of screen time,
which was low.

Results
Survey Data
Principal components analyses with varimax orthogonal
rotation reduced survey items for two predictor variables
(child interests and collaborative parentchild interaction).
Factor scores were used in further analyses. Table 1 shows
descriptive statistics, factor loadings and alpha coefficients
for predictor variables. Correlation and regression analyses
related home environment variables to literacy and
numeracy variables.
Child Interests
The principal component analysis with varimax orthogonal
rotation was conducted on the 14 child-interest items,
revealing a four-factor solution accounting for 58 % of the
variance. Considering the composites of the four components, they were labelled (in order) as: Exploratory Cognitive Play, Active Play, Crafts, and Screen Time. Given
that these are exploratory items, internal consistency reliability analyses were computed using Cronbachs alpha on
all items within a factor that approached .5 or higher as
shown in bold in Table 1 (except for doing puzzles on the

Parental Interaction
Preliminary principal component analyses of the cooking
and card making variables revealed that they could not be
collapsed; perhaps the ratings were influenced by childrens preferences for these activities. Thus, principal
components analyses with varimax orthogonal rotation
were conducted separately for each of the cooking and card
making scenarios accounted for 70.2 and 76.7 % of the
variance respectively. The two components were labelled
as Collaborative and Adult Directed, and regression factor
scores were saved as variables. Due to overall similarities
in cooking and card making data, only cooking data is
included further.
Home Literacy and Numeracy Activities
Two principal component analyses with varimax orthogonal rotation were conducted separately on the home literacy
and numeracy activities. Each of the two factor analyses

Table 1 Descriptive Statistics and Rotated Factor Loadings for the Child Interest Ratings and the Cooking Activity Involvement Ratings
(N = 170 for Interests; N = 169 for Involvement)
Child Interests

Descriptives

Factor loadings

SD

Exploratory

Active

Crafts

Screen time

Pretend play

2.76

1.03

.666

.057

-.129

-.078

Adult reading stories

2.92

.94

.612

.250

.166

-.091

Reading books alone

1.54

1.47

.594

-.016

.314

.001

Singing/listening to music

2.46

1.18

.559

.223

.282

.273

Doing puzzles

1.97

1.19

.495

.506

.216

-.014
.371

Board/card games

2.14

1.13

.455

.308

.177

Individual sports

2.42

1.16

.089

.776

.047

.119

Group sports

1.69

1.27

.038

.740

.019

.086

Building

2.01

1.27

.266

.690

-.137

-.041

Printing letter/number

1.99

1.16

.130

.122

.900

-.027

Arts, Crafts, Colouring

2.62

1.13

.260

-.136

.808

-.020

Watching TV

2.37

.99

.185

-.141

-.150

.830

Video games

1.96

1.35

-.157

.263

.052

.788

Parent interaction style

Collaborative

Directed

Discuss measure

1.28

.919

.853

-.043

Child measures

.84

.895

.837

-.046

Child only stirs

1.75

.975

.612

.134

Child watches

1.08

.906

.024

.991

Child interests and involvement ratings ranged from 0 to 4. Bolded items have high loadings on each respective factor, although all items listed
were used to create the factor score

123

Early Childhood Educ J

Table 2 Bivariate correlations among variables (N = 170)
1. Median income

2. Child age

-.140

3. Child gender

2
.085

-.094

Interests
4. Exploratory

.170*

.035

.176*

.720a

5. Active

-.084

.066

-.426**

.000

.668

6. Crafts

-.088

.108

.464**

.000

.000

.788

7. Screen time

-.211**

.107

-.039

.000

.000

.000

.595

.118

.031

.112

.342**

.017

.183*

.059

9. Literacy

.105

.165*

.203**

.320**

.148

.407**

-.022

.349**

10. Numeracy

.125

.127

.095

.366**

.233**

.310**

-.031

.352**

Parent interaction style

8. Collaborative interaction

.742

Activities
.776**

** p \ .01; * p \ .05
a

Reliabilities shown on diagonals (where applicable)

yielded a two-factor solution, and each of the components

were labelled as advanced literacy or advanced numeracy,
and basic literacy or numeracy. Regression factor scores
were saved as variables and used to represent the formal
home literacy and numeracy activities as outcome variables
in the current work. Since our previous work showed that
the activities which loaded highly on the basic component
did not predict academic outcomes probably because they
were popular and common home activities with all families
(e.g., singing rhyming or counting songs), they were not
included as outcome variables in the present work.
Correlations
Bivariate correlations among three control variables (child
age, child gender, median income), four child interest
variables, and the collaborative parenting interaction variable are shown in Table 2. The adult directed parenting
interaction variable did not correlate significantly with any
variable and is not included in the table. Children in families with higher median incomes were more likely to
experience home numeracy activities and were more
interested in exploratory play, but were less interested in
screen time. Child age and child gender were correlated
with literary activities; parents of girls reported more frequent literacy activities than parents of boys. Childrens
interests in exploratory, active and crafts activities, as well
as collaborative parentchild interactions correlated with
more frequent reports of home literacy and numeracy
practices.
Regression Analyses
As shown in Table 3, hierarchical regression was used to
examine factors influencing the frequency of literacy and

numeracy activities. Control variables were entered in Step

1 if they had significant zero order correlations with the
outcome variable; thus, child age and gender were included
in the literacy analysis. Child interests variables were
entered in Step 3, whereas parental interaction styles were
entered in Step 4.
Home Literacy and Home Numeracy Activities
Table 3 shows the results for home literacy and numeracy
activities. The block of control variables (entered in Step 1)
accounted for 7 % of the variance in home literacy activities, but neither of these variables contributed significantly
on their own.
As predicted, exploratory, active and craft activity interests (but not screen time) entered in Step 2 significantly
accounted for 23 and 28 % of the variance in home literacy
and numeracy activities respectively. Each of these variables
was associated with unique variance when considered separately. The results clearly demonstrate that childrens
interests predict parents reports of childrens involvement
in literacy and numeracy activities. In Step 3 for both
equations, parental interaction styles accounted for an
additional 3.3 and 3.6 % unique variance in the frequency of
home literacy and numeracy activities respectively. Collaborative interaction styles facilitate engagement in early
home activities, important for later schooling.
Interview Data
The purpose of the interview data was to provide further
explanation concerning the relation between home environments and childrens numeracy abilities. Although
home literacy environments have been investigated, less is
known about home numeracy. Three themes were

123

Early Childhood Educ J

Table 3 Hierarchical
regression of child interests and
parent interactions predicting
home literacy and home
numeracy practices

Block

Predictor

DR2

Final model statistics

Beta

Semipartial r

Home literacy activities

1

Control variables

.075**

Child age

.116

1.75

.082

.137

Child gender

.068

.78

.434

.062
.255

Child interests

.228**

Exploratory

.237**

3.34

.001

Active interests

.166*

2.25

.026

.174

Crafts

.327**

4.18

.000

.313

-.044

-.67

.504

-.053

.197**
-.005

2.82
-.08

.005
.940

.217
-.006

.256**

3.59

.001

.256

Screen time
3

Parent interaction

.033*

Collaborative
Directed
Home numeracy activities
1

Child interests

.164**

Exploratory

For home literacy, F(8,

169) = 10.18, MSE = 7.10,
p \ .001; For home numeracy,
F(7, 169) = 6.20, MSE = 5.10,
p \ .001
** p B .01; * p B .05

Active

.197**

2.78

.006

.197

Crafts

.240**

3.37

.001

.240

-.64

.526

-.045

2.64

.009

.185

.635

.033

Screen time
2

Parent interaction
Collaborative

.205**

Directed

.038

identified: (1) activity breadth, (2) parental interaction

style, and (3) numeracy opportunities.
All children were involved in a breadth of activities
[hockey, ringette (i.e., a team sport similar to hockey
played on ice using a straight stick and a rubber ring), arts
and crafts, hand-held toy cars, formula racing, ballet, board
games, pretend play, swimming, and piano]. In some cases,
one or two activities dominated. Both boys were interested
in cars and hockey. One interviewee indicated her son was
interested in (little toy) cars, little hockey sticks, and
trucks, and thats about it. He (has) cost me a fortune in
(small hand-held toy) cars. Another interviewee described
pretend play interests:
She has always had a huge imagination and a lot of her
play is imagination based. This will be the second year
that she is intensely into playing school. She goes to
school all day and then will come home and has a
classroom set up in the basement and goes straight
downstairs and teaches down there for two hours.
Although there are identified mathematical differences
across the children described in these interviews, differences
were not attributable to impoverished play environments.
Parents supported their childrens interests in appropriate ways. Sometimes the interactions were reciprocal and
childs interests invoked parental interests:

123

-.045
.034*

.475

The library card has made us go together and I picked

out the Twilight Saga. So I started reading every
night. I sit on the couch and read after their homework. So instead of the kids putting their books away,
we just all cuddle up on the couch, and everyones
reading. They kind of do what we do.
Through modelling (parents play hockey as well as the
children), direct involvement (coaching childrens hockey
games) and/or employment of resources (We buy him
hockey books or signed her up for art classes),
interviewees supported their childrens interests.
Differences were noted in terms of creating opportunities for numeracy learning. In the two families of children
with high math scores, numeracy opportunities were
described during play: (He loves) playing on the computer, doing spreadsheets. Hes into Formula 1 car racing
and so he does all the drivers and all the stats and all the
spreadsheets. He puts in formulas to count up all their
scores and standings. Another comment included a gaming context: [He] loves Monopoly. As long as hes the
banker, and he gets to count all the money, and sort it, hes
fine. Even crafts could be turned into a numerical project:
She played with her sticker collection. She put
together a sticker club. She had all these stickers
organized by type. She kept track of how many she

Early Childhood Educ J

had. You had to sign your name if you wanted to be a

part of her club. Its still on my hallway wall.
In contrast, in the two families where numeracy scores
were lower, attitudes toward academic learning were very
relaxed: Home is for play and fun. Parents were less
involved in their childrens play activities:
Theres probably only interactive discussion if theres
been a fight. They do play all together, without us. If I
go down and ask whats going on, she wants me out
of there. So I usually stay out of it. (Play is) less
parent-directed. Theres parental intervention if they
want to watch TV for ten hours [but otherwise] they
can do whatever they want and thats fine with me.
The same interviewee expresses frustration about her
childs academic performance, however:
She is throwing me a real curve ball because she
loves playing school but she has absolutely no
interest in learning to read. I have the resource teacher telling me they think something is wrong with
her but I know intuitively theres nothing wrong
Its difficult to fit her into boxes of the education
system.
Although activities involving free play, with limited or no
collaborative parentchild interaction can affect childrens
development in other positive ways, opportunities to
introduce or apply numeracy or literacy concepts in the
environment are likely missed.

Discussion
The goal of the present work was to examine the connections among childrens interests, parents collaborative
interaction, and the frequency of home literacy and
numeracy activities. The results support the hypotheses that
factors in the home environment are correlated with early
literacy and numeracy exposure, both of which are foundational for childrens learning when they start formal
schooling (e.g., Duncan et al. 2007). Our study showed
that, with the exception of screen time activities (such as
watching TV or video gaming), which were not associated
with literacy and numeracy exposure, there is not a specific
activity or set of activities (e.g., crafts) that are more likely
to be correlated with the frequency of formal literacy or
numeracy activities. From hockey practice to trading card
collecting, the interviews showed examples of ways in
which numeracy content occurred naturally in the home.
The findings are consistent with early childhood education philosophies that encourage development of the
whole child and diversity in play opportunities (e.g.,

Cromwell 2000). Accordingly, childrens opportunity for

learning is maximized when they are interacting with other
people, materials, and their surroundings in meaningful and
satisfying ways (Vygotsky 1978). As children are exposed
to new situations, opportunities arise for cognitive and
social development, including literacy and numeracy
exposure. Children exposed to literacy and numeracy
content within the realm of their interests may use and
expand on their knowledge of a familiar topic, allowing for
materials to be processed at a deep level.
Considering child interest and parents interaction
styles, a favourable learning environment occurs when both
children and parents are interested, often collaboratively in
tasks, allowing for literacy and numeracy opportunities.
Parents may be helpful in translating the concepts to which
children are exposed in everyday life into content that is
valued in school, and some cross-cultural research has
shown differences in Chinese mothers natural tendencies to
draw out mathematics content in play sessions, compared
to American counterparts (Pan et al. 2006).
Asking parents to interact collaboratively with young
children about the early numeracy and literacy concepts in
their homes seems obvious, and yet these interactions may
not be happening as often as they should in North American homes. Cannon and Ginsburg (2008) have encouraged
collaborative parentchild interactions through recommendations to policy reform and intervention work based
on similar research findings. Philosophies to let kids be
kids and have time for play may change the focus and
content of interactions, and thus, educational training may
be left under the expertise guise of teachers and schools.
Cross-cultural research has shown that there are academic
benefits to early home numeracy exposure (Pan et al.
2006), and parents may need to be shown ways in which
home efforts are necessary and helpful to later academic
learning, so they make it a priority to establish a literacy
and numeracy foundation for their children. Some parents
report being anxious about mathematics and may avoid
introducing numeracy concepts, or they may not know how
to involve children in numeracy initiatives (Cannon and
Ginsburg 2008; Skwarchuk 2009). Expectations are also
important; early childhood educators with high expectations for what children are capable of learning were more
likely to provide numeracy experiences than those with low
expectations (LeFevre et al. 2009b).
Although this study has been helpful in identifying
specific contextual factors associated with the frequency of
home literacy and numeracy experiences, there are limitations to conducting survey research. Parents responses
may be sensitive to demand characteristics and dependent
on their recollections. We tried to minimize the reporting
of retrospective parental accounts with our longitudinal
design, but like other studies in this field, this study still

123

Early Childhood Educ J

relies on parents remembering and interpreting play sessions. The inclusion of four parent interviews in this work
supported the survey data, showing detailed examples of
how childrens interests and parents interaction styles
provided opportunities for literacy and numeracy learning.
But further research involving observational methods (e.g.,
Tudge and Doucet 2004), or in the context of an intervention is encouraged to validate findings derived primarily from survey research.
This study has provided further insight into the role that
childrens interests and adult interaction styles contribute
to early numeracy learning. Although messages to parents
about early exposure to literacy and now numeracy concepts abound, other subtleties in the home environment,
such as the childs interests and interaction styles may
govern the extent to which these early learning opportunities are actually provided. Early childhood teachers are in
contact with parents, and they can inform parents about the
importance of being collaboratively involved in childrens
play preferences and using their childrens interests as a
way to foster literacy and numeracy skills development.
Early childhood educators may also reflect on ways that
they themselves can infuse numeracy and literacy content
into a range of play opportunities when children are in their
care. Increasing awareness and encouraging opportunities
for numeracy and literacy growth in early childhood will
help children develop important foundational skills prior to
school entry.
Acknowledgments Financial support for the project was provided
by Healthy Child Manitoba, the Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council, and the University of Winnipeg. The authors
gratefully acknowledge the parents and their children who participated in the project; the Manitoba Early Learning and Child Care
program, and the early childhood directors and educators who
recruited participants from child care centres across the city. We wish
to thank David Willoughby, Lori Mergulhao, Jessica Robinson for
their assistance with data collection and data entry.

References
Baroody, A. J., & Diamond, K. E. (2010). Links among home literacy
environment, literacy interest, and emergent literacy skills in
preschoolers at risk for reading difficulties. Topics in Early
Childhood Special Education, 20, 110. doi:10.1177/02711214
10392803.
Baumrind, D. (1966). Effects of authoritative parental control on child
behaviour. Child Development, 37, 887907.
Blevins-Knabe, B. (2008). Fostering early numeracy at home.
Encyclopedia of Language and Literacy Research. Retrieved
July 15, 2009 from: http://literacyencyclopedia.ca/index.php?fa=
items.show&topicId=245.
Blevins-Knabe, B., & Musun-Miller, L. (1996). Number use at home
by children and their parents and its relationship to early
mathematical performance. Early Development and Parenting,
5, 3545. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099-0917(199603)5:1\35:AIDEDP113[3.0.CO;2-0.

123

Bowman, M., & Treiman, R. (2004). Stepping stones to reading.

Theory into Practice, 43(4), 295303. doi:10.1207/s15430421
tip4304_8.
Cannon, J., & Ginsburg, H. P. (2008). Doing the math: Maternal
beliefs about early mathematics versus language learning. Early
Education and Development, 19(2), 238260. doi:10.1080/
10409280801963913.
Chi, M. T., & Koeske, R. D. (1983). Network representation of a
childs dinosaur knowledge. Developmental Psychology, 19(1),
2939. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.19.1.29.
Cromwell, E. S. (2000). Nurturing readiness in early childhood
education: A whole-child curriculum for ages 25 (pp.
106164). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Dearing, E., Kreider, H., Simpkins, S., & Weiss, H. B. (2006). Family
involvement in school and low-income childrens literacy:
Longitudinal associations between and within families. Journal
of Educational Psychology, 98(4), 653664. doi:10.1037/00220663.98.4.653.
DeLoache, J. S., Simcock, G., & Macari, S. (2007). Planes, trains,
automobilesand tea sets: Extremely intense interests in very
young children. Developmental Psychology, 43(6), 15791586.
doi:10.1037/0012-1649.43.6.1579.
Duncan, G. J., Dowsett, C. J., Claessens, A., Magnuson, K., Huston,
A. C., Klebanov, P., et al. (2007). School readiness and later
achievement. Developmental Psychology, 43, 14281446.
doi:10.1037/0012-1649.43.6.1428.
Fan, X., & Chen, M. (2001). Parental involvement and students
academic achievement: A meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 13(1), 122. doi:10.1023/A:1009048817385.
Fisher, P. H., Doctoroff, G. L., Dobbs-Oates, J., & Arnold, D. H.
(2012). Early math interest and the development of math skills.
Journal of Educational Psychology, 104(3), 673681. doi:10.
1037/a0027756.
Hess, R., & McDevitt,T. (1984). Some cognitive consequences of
maternal intervention techniques: A longitudinal study. Child
Development, 55, 19021912. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.
org/stable/1129776.
Hetland, L. (2000). Listening to music enhances spatial-temporal
reasoning: Evidence for the Mozart Effect. Journal of
Aesthetic Education, 34(34), 105148. Retrieved from http://
www.jstor.org/stable/3333640.
Hidi, S., & Renninger, K. A. (2006). The four-phase model of interest
development. Educational Psychologist, 41(2), 111127. doi:10.
1207/s15326985ep4102_4.
Hidi, S., Renninger, K. A., & Krapp, A. (2004). Interest, a
motivational variable that combines affective and cognitive
functioning. In D. Y. Dai & R. J. Stemberg (Eds.), Motivation,
emotion, and cognition: Integrative perspectives on intellectual
functioning and development (pp. 89115). Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Johnson, K. E., Alexander, J. M., Spencer, S., Leibham, M. E., &
Neitzel, C. (2004). Factors associated with the early emergence
of intense interests within conceptual domains. Cognitive
Development, 19(3), 325343. doi:10.1016/j.cogdev.2004.03.
001.
Kamii, C., & DeVries, R. (1978/1993). Physical knowledge in
preschool children: Implications of Piagets theory. New York,
NY: Teachers College Press.
LeFevre, J. A., Polyzoi, E., Skwarchuk, S. L., Fast, L., & Sowinski, C.
(2010). Do home numeracy and literacy practices of Greek and
Canadian parents predict the numeracy skills of kindergarten
children? International Journal of Early Years Education, 18(1),
5570. doi:10.1080/09669761003693926.
LeFevre, J. A., Skwarchuk, S. L., Fast, L., Smith-Chant, B.,
Kamawar, D., & Bisanz, J. (2009a). Home numeracy experiences and childrens math performance in the early school years.

Early Childhood Educ J

Canadian Journal of Behaviorial Science, 41, 5566. doi:10.
1037/a0014532.
LeFevre, J. A., Sowinski, C., Fast, L., Osana, H., Skwarchuk, S. L., &
Manay Quian, N. (2009b). Whos counting? Numeracy and
literacy practices of early learning and child care practitioners.
Canadian Council on Learning Final Report. Retrieved from
http://www.ccl-cca.ca/pdfs/FundedResearch/LeFevreWhosCounting
EN.pdf.
Leibham, M. E., Alexander, J. M., Johnson, K. E., Neitzel, C., &
Reis-Henrie, F. (2005). Parenting behaviors associated with the
maintenance of preschoolers interests: A prospective longitudinal study. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 26,
397414. doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2005.05.001.
Martini, F., & Senechal, M. (2012). Learning literacy skills at home:
Parent teaching, expectation, and child interest. Canadian
Journal of Behavioural Science, 44(3), 210221. doi:10.1037/
a0026758.
Mayer, R. E. (2004). Should there be a three-strikes rule against pure
discovery learning? The case for guided methods of instruction.
American Psychologist, 59, 1419. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.59.1.
14.
Musun-Miller, L., & Blevins-Knabe, B. (1998). Adults beliefs about
children and mathematics: How important is it and how do
children learn about it? Early Development and Parenting, 7,
191202. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099-0917(199812)7:4\191:AIDEDP181[3.0.CO;2-I.
Neitzel, C., Alexander, J. M., & Johnson, K. E. (2008). Childrens
early interest-based activities in the home and subsequent
information contributions and pursuits in Kindergarten. Journal
of Educational Psychology, 100(4), 782797. doi:10.1037/00220663.100.4.782.
Pan, Y., Gauvain, M., Liu, Z., & Cheng, L. (2006). American and
Chinese parental involvement in young childrens mathematics
learning. Cognitive Development, 21, 1735. doi:10.1016/j.
cogdev.2005.08.001.

Pianta, R. C., Nimetz, S. L., & Bennett, E. (1997). Motherchild

relationships, teacherchild relationships, and school outcomes in
preschool and kindergarten. Early Childhood Research Quarterly,
12(3), 263280. doi:10.1016/S0885-2006(97)90003-X.
Schellenberg, E. G. (2004). Music lessons enhance IQ. Psychological
Science, 15, 511514. Retrieved from http://grizzlie.erin.
utoronto.ca/*w3psygs/SchellenbergPS2004.pdf.
Schiefele, U., & Krapp, A. (1996). Topic interest and free recall of
expository text. Learning & Individual Differences, 8, 141160.
doi:10.1016/S1041-6080(96)90030-8.
Senechal, M., & LeFevre, J. A. (2002). Parental involvement in the
development of childrens reading skill: A five-year longitudinal
study. Child Development, 73, 445460. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.
00417.
Senko, C., & Harackiewicz, J. M. (2002). Performance goals: The
moderating roles of context and achievement orientation.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38(6), 603610.
doi:10.1016/S0022-1031(02)00503-6.
Skwarchuk, S. (2009). How do parents support preschoolers
numeracy learning experiences at home? Early Childhood
Education Journal, 37, 189197. doi:10.1007/s10643-0090340-1.
Tudge, J. R. H., & Doucet, F. (2004). Early mathematical experiences: Observing young Black and White childrens everyday
activities. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 19, 2139.
doi:10.1016/ecresq.2004.01.007.
Turnbull, A., Turnbull, H. R., Erwin, E., Soodak, L., & Shogren, K.
(2011). Families, professionals, and exceptionality: Positive
outcomes through partnerships and trust (6th ed., p. 268).
Boston: Merrill.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: Development of higher
psychological process (p. 86). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

123