Ambiente de aprendizaje en el hogar, instrucción materna y desempeño numérico temprano

Even before the start of formal schooling, there are large individual differences in children’s numerical performance, however, the knowledge about the mechanisms through which young children develop numerical abilities is limited. Certain contextual characteristics surrounding the children, including the home learning environment and the mother’s education, have been associated with children’s numerical performance. Research on this topic has been conducted mostly in developed countries, which makes the generality of those findings for developing countries, an open question. The aim of the present study was to examine the relations between the home learning environment and the mother’s education and the numerical abilities of first-grade children. A total of 176 cuencano children from public and private schools participated in the study. The results indicate that certain characteristics of the home environment, such as the numerical and literacy activities that parents perform with their children, are not related to the numerical performance of the children. However, the number of books for children available in the home is predictively related to their numerical performance. Similarly, the level of maternal education has a predictive relationship with children ́s numerical performance.