The home learning environment includes parental activities, attitudes, affect, knowledge, and resources devoted to supporting children’s development, including literacy and mathematics skills. These factors are related to the academic performance of preschool children (aged 3 to 6 years), before formal schooling and possibly beyond. In the present research, we examined the home learning environment of Canadian families as reported by either the mother (n = 51) or father (n = 30) of their Grade 3 child (n = 81; M_age = 8.7 years; range 8 to 9 years of age). Importantly, mothers’ and fathers’ reports of the home learning environment for school children were similar. For literacy, parents’ knowledge of children’s books and attitudes toward literacy were related to children’s vocabulary skills; home literacy was not related to word reading skills. For mathematics, parents’ reports of the frequency of activities such as practicing arithmetic facts and their attitudes toward mathematics were related to children’s arithmetic fluency. Other aspects of the home learning environment (time spent helping with homework, parents’ math anxiety) were not related to children’s performance. These results suggest some continuity between home learning environments and academic skills after children’s transition to school.

The purpose of these meta-analyses was to examine the effectiveness of home-based interventions aimed at improving literacy and mathematics outcomes for preschool-age children (mean age = 4.29 years; range = 3.07–5.32 years) and to develop an understanding of what home-based interventions work in different contexts. A total of 32 studies met the inclusion criteria for these meta-analyses; 30 studies included sufficient data for inclusion in the meta-analyses, and two studies did not contain sufficient quantitative data and instead were summarized in a narrative review. The average weighted effect size for interventions with literacy (d = 0.10; CI = [−0.17, 0.38]; n = 27) and mathematical outcomes (d = 0.18; CI = [−1.62, 1.99]; n = 8) were minimal. Hence, these meta-analyses showed that home-based interventions had minimal effect on literacy and mathematical outcomes for preschoolers. There were more home-based interventions with literacy (N = 28) than mathematical outcomes (N = 10). The heterogeneity showed no variability, indicating that all intervention impacted on children’s outcomes to similar effect. Overall, many interventions were relatively light touch (i.e., time spent engaging in parent training), and the engagement requirement of the parent in some studies was minimal (e.g., reading a short text message). More in-depth research into the components of interventions (e.g., focus, training approaches) and evaluation of interventions before they are implemented is essential for ensuring that early interventions will be effective and lead to the development of the intended skills.

Children begin pre-school with varying levels of school readiness. Those children who enter pre-school with better foundational mathematics skills are more likely to succeed in school than those who do not. This initial variation in early mathematics suggests that experiences outside of the school setting, namely the home environment, may support learning and development. This study aims to systematically develop a comprehensive home mathematics environment questionnaire that reliably assesses the experiences of pre-school children (i.e., 3–5-year-olds) following recent recognised scale development and validation methods. Four studies were used to develop and validate the Pre-school Home Mathematics Questionnaire (PHMQ). Study 1 focused on 1) item generation through individual, in-depth interviews with parents of young children and 2) identifying previous questions from other home mathematics environment (HME) questionnaires to be incorporated into the PHMQ. Study 2 involved questionnaire refinement and was used to assess the psychometric properties of the new measure while addressing construct validity (i.e., factor structure and scale score reliability). Study 3 assessed content and criterion validity of the scale. Finally, Study 4 focused on construct validity through confirmatory factor analysis. Overall, the four studies demonstrate construct, content, and criterion validity. Hence, the newly developed PHMQ satisfies the American Psychological Association (APA) standards for psychometric adequacy.

The purpose of the current study was to qualitatively explore the home mathematical environment across two regions in two different countries (i.e., Cuba and Mexico), replicating a qualitative study previously conducted in Northern Ireland (NI), United Kingdom (Cahoon et al., 2017). Semi‐structured interviews with parents/caregivers of children (3‐ to 5‐year‐olds) in both Mexico (n = 13) and Cuba (n = 40) were completed to investigate their views, experiences and attitudes towards the home mathematical environment. Thematic analysis was used to explore themes relevant to the home mathematical environment. Three consistent themes were found in the Mexican and Cuban data: Numeracy Environment Structure, Expectations and Attitudes and Views of Technology. Two unique themes were found in the Mexico data: Interactions Related to Reading or Mathematics, and Child's Attitudes in Relation to Mathematics. One unique theme was found in the Cuban interviews: Interactions for Learning. Although diverse themes were identified, consistencies were also observed. This suggests that some home numeracy practices may be universal in nature. This research increases the understanding of human development in context.

The purpose of these meta-analyses were to examine the effectiveness of home-based interventions aimed at improving literacy and mathematics outcomes for preschool aged children (mean age = 4.29; range = 3.07 to 5.32 years) and to develop an understanding of what home-based interventions work in different contexts. A total of 32 studies met the inclusion criteria for these meta-analyses; 30 studies included sufficient data for inclusion in the meta-analyses and 2 studies did not contain sufficient quantitative data and instead were summarised in a narrative review. The average weighted effect size for interventions with literacy (d = 0.10; CI = -0.17, 0.38; n = 27) and mathematical outcomes (d = 0.18; CI = -1.62, 1.99; n = 8) were small. Hence, these meta-analyses showed that home-based interventions had minimal effect on literacy and mathematical outcomes for pre-schoolers. There were more home-based interventions with literacy (N = 28) than mathematical outcomes (N = 10). The heterogeneity showed no variability indicating that all intervention impacted on children’s outcomes to similar effect. Overall, many interventions were relatively light touch (i.e., time spent engaging in parent training) and the engagement requirement of the parent in some studies was minimal (e.g., reading a short text message). More in-depth research into the components of interventions (e.g., focus, training approaches) and evaluation of interventions before they are implemented is essential for ensuring that early interventions will be effective and lead to the development of the intended skills.