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Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler, professor of Psychology, has published a chapter on Parental guidance of numeracy development in early childhood, in an edited volume entitled Contemporary Perspectives on Mathematics in Early Childhood Education.

The chapters in this book provide a critical analysis of research on young children’s learning of mathematics in social contexts. Vandermaas-Peeler’s chapter is an examination of parent-child interactions during play, and a review of the extent research on parent-child activities that support preschoolers’ emergent numeracy.

The findings indicated that parents supported numeracy-related concepts in free play and in structured activities, and that parental support and ¾Ã¾ÃÈÈ related to math activities at home has been linked to children’s achievement in school. She concludes that a greater emphasis and focus on parent-child interactions related to numeracy at home is needed in both research and practice. The book is in press (Information Age Publishing, 2008).