Complexity of parental number talk predicts preschoolers’ gains in cardinal knowledge

The study sought to identify the parental, child, and classroom predictors of gains in children's (n = 86) cardinal knowledge of number words and numerals (child M_age = 3.83 years; parent M_age = 35.17 years). Children's cardinal and related knowledge was assessed at the beginning of preschool, and their cardinal knowledge assessed again five months later. Children's executive functions, working memory, and intelligence were also assessed. Parents (n = 86) reported on their math anxiety, attitudes, beliefs, and home numeracy activities, and their academic achievement and intelligence were assessed. A parent-child number talk task assessed the content and complexity of quantitative talk in the home. Classroom measures included children's attentive behavior, and teacher-reported mathematics content presented in these classrooms. Children showed substantive gains in cardinal knowledge of number words (d = 0.57) and numerals (d = 0.65). A series of Bayesian and standard regression analyses revealed that complexity of parental number talk predicted gains in children's understanding of the cardinal values of number words (β = 0.27) and numerals (β = 0.25). Gains for number words were also predicted by children's executive functions (β = 0.30), whereas gains for numerals were predicted by recognition of numerals (β = 0.24). The results provide insights into the most critical contributors to children's emerging conceptual understanding of number.