Spontaneous focus on numerosity in parents of preschoolers: Is it related to the math input they provide?

There is substantial variability among parents in the amount of math input they provide at home, which is related to differences in children’s early math knowledge. The current study examined whether parents’ spontaneous focus on numerosity (SFON) predicts the math input they provide at home—in terms of both their math talk and frequency of math activities. Parents (N = 124) from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds in China were presented with a SFON picture task. Unique to the current investigation, two conditions were used to determine SFON. The conditions differed only in the hypothetical conversational partner: an adult-oriented condition and a child-oriented condition. No effect of SFON was found for math activities, but there was an effect on math talk; child-oriented SFON, but not adult-oriented SFON, predicted the amount and diversity of math talk parents produced during play interactions. Furthermore, parents’ education was associated with their SFON and its relation to math talk. Parents with more advanced education had greater SFON scores than those with lower education. Importantly, the positive relation between parents’ SFON and their math talk was moderated by socioeconomic status (SES), such that the effect was primarily driven by low-SES parents. Together, the findings suggest that SFON may be a promising construct in the study of parent math input, but parents’ SES and the nature of the SFON task must be taken into consideration.