A Guide for Fostering Parent–Child Math Talk and Play During Shared Book-Reading Across Diverse Genres

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
File version

Version of Record (VoR)

Author(s)
Bergman Deitcher, Deborah
Neumann, Michelle M
Griffith University Author(s)
Primary Supervisor
Other Supervisors
Editor(s)
Date
2025
Size
File type(s)
Location
Abstract

This theoretical paper expands upon previous research and proposes a guide for promoting mathematical talk and play through shared book reading (SBR), with a focus on the home environment. Building on a previously developed classroom-based model, this article describes a design-based research approach to extend the guide to including diverse literary genres—such as narrative, informational, multicultural, and math-specific books in a home setting. Parent–child shared book-reading in authentic contexts can provide a rich platform for “math talk”, where references are made to mathematical words, concepts, and content, and may support children’s mathematical skills. SBR with quality children’s literature can play a promising role in motivating and engaging children’s interest and pleasure in both reading and mathematics. However, few studies have explored this with diverse literary genres in the home setting, as the main focus has been in the classroom and using books specifically written to teach math content such as counting or sorting books. The proposed guide provides direction and practical examples for fostering parent–child math talk and play activities that can be used to extend concepts covered during the SBR. The potential application of the SBR guide, and how it can encourage parent–child talk to support a full range of mathematical concepts, encourage home-preschool collaboration, promote effective SBR techniques, and facilitate parent–child conversations about math in new and confident ways is discussed.

Journal Title

Education Sciences

Conference Title
Book Title
Edition
Volume

15

Issue

7

Thesis Type
Degree Program
School
Publisher link
Patent number
Funder(s)
Grant identifier(s)
Rights Statement
Rights Statement

© 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Item Access Status
Note
Access the data
Related item(s)
Subject

Curriculum and pedagogy

Education policy, sociology and philosophy

Specialist studies in education

Persistent link to this record
Citation

Bergman Deitcher, D; Neumann, MM, A Guide for Fostering Parent–Child Math Talk and Play During Shared Book-Reading Across Diverse Genres, Education Sciences, 15 (7), pp. 805

Collections