Research in the field of math learning has demonstrated that young children’s number skills are a unique predictor of their future math achievement and adulthood career success, and that parents’ number talk is one of the most proximal ecological factors that stimulate children’s early number learning. Less research attention has been paid to which types of number talk are more effective than others in promoting children’s number learning. Emerging evidence shows that parents’ math input encouraging children’s application of math knowledge in everyday life facilitates children’s math learning. Accordingly, parents’ number application talk, defined as parents’ number talk that encourages children to apply number knowledge in real-life settings, may be a promising means of promoting children’s number learning outcomes.

Based on two intervention studies of parents with preschool-aged children, the proposed project aims to examine the causal role of parents’ number application talk in enhancing children’s number skills and number interest in two real-life contexts. Both studies adopt a randomized controlled experimental design that involves three groups of parent-child dyads: a group receiving a number application talk intervention, another group receiving a number non-application talk intervention, and still another group serving as a placebo control.

Whereas Study 1 consists of brief interventions implemented with 159 parent-child dyads, Study 2 comprises intensified interventions implemented with 180 parent-child dyads. The findings are expected to help identify ways to promote young children’s early math learning, and to support an emphasis in future parent education programs on incorporating math learning within meaningful parent–child interactions in informal settings.

The Project period runs from January 2023 to December 2025 funded by University Grants Committee (UGC) General Research Fund [1]. Dr. Zhang Xiao, member of the CACLER, applied and mentioned the Centre as part of the research infrastructure. The co-investigators are Dr. Liu Cuina, Prof. Wang Shu Qing and Miss Zou Xin Zhuo.

[1] https://www.ugc.edu.hk/eng/rgc/funding_opport/grf/