It’s common knowledge that parents should talk and read to their young children. But are there similar things that parents can do to lay the foundation for success in math?

A new wave of research says yes. Here are three takeaways from 22 studies conducted over the past dozen years:

The link between parent math talk and higher math skills

Researchers found that the more parents talked about math with their children, the stronger their children’s math skills. In these studies, researchers typically observed parents and children interacting in a university lab, a school, a museum or at home and kept track of how often parents mentioned numbers or shapes. For example, “Hand me three potato chips.”

Researchers also gave children a math test and found that children who scored higher tended to have parents who talked about math more during the observation period.

The link between parents’ math talk and a child’s math skills was strongest between ages 3 and 5. With older children, the amount of time that parents spent talking about math was not as closely related to their math achievement. Once children start school, their math abilities are influenced more by the instruction they receive from their teachers, researchers believe.

Related: Consult the research. Jill Barshay’s weekly newsletter explains the studies behind trending topics in education.

None of these studies proves that talking to your preschooler about math causes their math skills to improve. Parents who talk more about math may also have higher incomes and more education. Stronger math skills could be the result of all the other things that wealthier and more educated parents are giving their kids — nutritious meals, a good night’s sleep, visits to museums and vacations — and not the math talk per se.

“What the research is showing at this point is that talking more about math tends to be associated with better outcomes for children,” said Alex Silver, a psychologist at the University of Pittsburgh whose paper about the new wave of research was published in the July 2024 issue of the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. “It’s an easy way to bring math concepts into your day to day life that doesn’t require buying special equipment, or setting aside time to tutor your child and try to teach them arithmetic.”

Keep it natural

The strongest link between parent talk about math and a child’s math performance was detected when researchers didn’t tell parents to do a math activity. Parents who naturally brought up numbers or shapes in a normal conversation had children who scored higher on math assessments. When researchers had parents do a math exercise with children, the amount of math-related words that a parent used wasn’t as strongly associated with better math performance for their children.

Silver, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Pittsburgh’s Learning Research & Development Center, recommends bringing math into something that the child is paying attention to, rather than doing flashcards or workbooks. It could be as simple as asking, “How many?”

Here’s an example Silver gave me: “Oh, look, you have a whole lot of cars. How many cars do you have? Let’s count them. You have one, two, three. There’s three cars there.”

When you’re doing a puzzle together, turn the shape in a different direction and talk about what it looks like. Setting the dinner table, grocery shopping and keeping track of money are opportunities to talk about numbers or shapes.

“The idea is to make it fun and playful,” said Silver. “As you’re cooking, say, ‘We need to add two eggs. Oh wait, we’re doubling the recipe, so we need two more eggs. How many is that all together?’ ”

I asked Silver about the many early childhood math apps and exercises on the market, and whether parents should be spending time doing them with their children. Silver said they can be helpful for parents who don’t know where to start, but she said parents shouldn’t feel guilty if they’re not doing math drills with their kids. “It’s enough to just talk about it naturally, to find ways to bring up numbers and shapes in the context of what you’re already doing.”

Quality may matter more than quantity

Researchers are unable to advise parents on exactly how much or how often to talk about math during the day. “Right now the evidence is that more is better, but at some point it’s so much math, you need to talk about something else now,” Silver said. Ultimately, the quantity of math talk may not be as important as how parents talk about math, Silver said. Reading a math textbook to your child probably wouldn’t be helpful. It’s not just about saying a bunch of math words. Still, researchers don’t know if asking questions or just talking about numbers is what makes a difference.

Perhaps the most inspiring conclusion from Silver’s analysis is that the association between a parent’s math talk and a child’s math performance was as strong for a low-income child as it was for a high-income child.

“That’s a happy thing to see that this transcends other circumstances,” said Silver.

While there are many questions left to answer, Silver is already putting her research into practice with her own three-year old son. She’s asked counting questions so many times that her little one has begun to tease her. Every time he sees a group of things, he pretends to be Mommy and asks, “How many? Let’s count them!”

“It’s very funny,” Silver said. “I’m like, ‘Wow, Mommy really drilled that one into you, huh?’ Buddy knows what you’re up to.”

Contact staff writer Jill Barshay at 212-678-3595 or [email protected].

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