Home learning environment or parents’ characteristics: Which matters more for Filipino children’s numeracy skills?

Parents play an important role in early numeracy development. This study further explored whether the numeracy learning environment they create at home or their own characteristics contribute more to children’s numeracy skills. 341 Filipino children aged 5-8 were tested on skills in numeral identification, rote counting, identification of missing number in number strings, numerical magnitude comparison, and addition. Moreover, their parents were tested on calculation fluency and asked to complete a questionnaire about home numeracy environment (including the amount of numeracy learning resources for children, and frequency of parent-child home numeracy activities) and their own characteristics (including their monthly family income, educational level, and frequency of engaging in math activities on their own). Linear regression analyses showed that after controlling for children’s gender, age and grade level, parents’ calculation fluency was a positive correlate of all 5 children’s numeracy skills. Surprisingly, parents’ frequency of engaging in math activities on their own was a negative correlate of some children’s numeracy skills. Parental education level and home numeracy environment variables were significant correlates of only 1-2 children’s numeracy skills respectively. These findings suggest that more support should be provided to parents, so as to help them capitalize on their own math skills and create high-quality home environments for children’s numeracy learning. Copyright © 2018 70th OMEP World Assembly and Conference.