Study of parenting practices and early number competencies of preschool children depending on socio-economic and cultural level of families

The preschool pupils’ numeracy competencies are predictive of their later academic and socio-professional success, and students who enter primary school with low numeracy skills tend to lag behind their peers mathematically later in school. Evidence shows that early numeracy skills are influenced by family background as well as family numeracy practices. However, few studies have attempted to understand precisely these relationships. Using data from Luxembourg, Switzerland, Belgium and France on the numeracy skills of 644 children aged 4 to 6 years and 388 parental questionnaires, this study aims at better identifying parental educational practices and family background characteristics that are associated with kindergarten children’s numeracy skills. On one hand, our results show that the frequency of informal activities at home seems to be conducive to the development of early numeracy competencies, and this beyond the age of the children and the socio-economic and cultural level of the parents. On the other hand, it appears that parents seek to move closer to school when their child presents learning difficulties in mathematics. The implications of these various findings are discussed in terms of possible school interventions.