Table 1.
Detailed overview of the reviewed studies.
| References | Sample size and children's age in years | Sample location/ethnicity and SES | Home numeracy measure | Comprehensive mathematical tests | Specific mathematical tasks | Results | Recomputed p-values |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Section A.1 | |||||||
| Huntsinger et al. (1997) |
N: 120 Mage: 5.6 |
Ethnicity: Euro-American, Chinese-American, Taiwan-Chinese SES: high |
Questionnaire: Formal activities |
Test of Early Mathematics Ability (TEMA-2; Ginsburg and Baroody, 1990): Informal (relative magnitude, counting) and Formal (number facts, calculation, and base-ten concepts) mathematics subtests | – | Significant paths:Formal activities → composite math (β = 0.23**) |
Not reported |
| Kleemans et al. (2012) |
N: 89 Mage: 6.1 |
Location:The NetherlandsSES: high | Questionnaire; Formal activities (adapted from LeFevre et al., 2009) | Utrecht Early Numeracy Test–Revised (Van Luit and Van de Rijt, 2009); comparison, linking quantities, correspondence, arranging, counting, estimation skills, knowledge of ordinal and cardinal aspects of number system, and ability to apply knowledge of the number system | – | Significant regressions:Formal activities → composite math(β = 0.33*) | t(87) = 3.82, p = 0.00025 |
| Segers et al. (2015) |
N: 60 Mage: 5.7 |
Location: The Netherlands SES: middle |
Questionnaire; Formal activities (adapted from Kleemans et al., 2012) |
Utrecht Early Numeracy Test-Revised | – | Significant regressions: Formal activities → composite math (β = 0.45**) |
t(50) = 3.53, p = 0.00090 |
| Cheung et al. (2018) |
N: 673 Mage: 4.3 |
Location: Philippines SES: low to middle |
Questionnaire: Formal activities (adapted from LeFevre et al., 2009) |
Composite math score from six tasks: numeral identification, object counting, rote counting, missing number, numerical magnitude comparison, addition | – | Significant result of interest: None | Not available |
| Anders et al. (2012) |
N: 532 Mage: T1: 3.7 T2: 4.7 T3: 5:7 |
Location: Germany SES: diverse |
Questionnaire: Formal activities and interactions (from the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment Inventory, HOME; Caldwell and Bradley, 1984, and Family Rating Scale; Kuger et al., 2005) |
The German version of Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (KABC; Melchers and Preuss, 2003): Counting, identifying numbers, knowledge of shapes, and addition and subtraction | – | Linear growth: Formal activities at T1 → composite math at T2 and T3 (b = 0.14*) |
t(530) = 2.8, p = 0.00530 |
| Napoli and Purpura (2018) |
N: 114 Mage: T1: 4.1 T2: 4.6 |
Location: USA SES: middle to high |
Questionnaire; Formal activities (adapted from LeFevre et al., 2009) at T1 |
Preschool Early Numeracy Skills Screener–Brief version (PENS-B; Purpura et al., 2015); Comparison, one-to-one correspondence, and ordinarily | – | Significant correlations: Formal activities at T1 and composite math at T2 (r = 0.40***) |
r(112) = 0.40, p = 0.00001 |
| Del Rio et al. (2017) |
N: 180 (mothers & fathers) Mage: 5.6 |
Location: Chile SES: low and high |
Questionnaire; Advanced formal activities (adapted from Skwarchuk et al., 2014) |
Applied Problems subset of the Woodcock–Munoz Bateria III (Muñoz-Sandoval et al., 2005); Orally and visually presented numeration and calculations | – | Significant correlations:Advanced formal activities of mothers and composite math(r = 0.21**) | r(178) = 0.21, p = 0.00466 |
| Zippert and Ramani (2017) |
N: 43 Mage: 4.5 |
Location: USA SES: middle to high |
Questionnaire; Basic and advanced formal activities |
Conventional math; rote counting, counting principles, numeral identification Non-symbolic math; non-symbolic magnitude comparison and addition Advanced math; symbolic magnitude comparison and arithmetic |
– | Significant correlations: Advanced formal activities and composite advanced math (r = 0.41**) |
r(41) = 0.41, p = 0.00632 |
| Niklas and Schneider (2014) |
N: 340 Mage: T1: 4.8 T2: 6.1 T3: beginning of grade 1 T4: end of grade 1 |
Location: Germany SES: diverse |
Questionnaire: Informal (game) activities at T2 |
Math battery at T1 and T2 (Krajewski, 2005): counting, naming numbers, solving simple calculations, matching, comparing quantities Performance Indicators in Primary School (PIPS; Tymms and Albone, 2002): calculations, naming 2–3-digit numbers, geometry at T3 “Deutscher Mathematiktest fur erste Klassen” (DEMAT 1+; Krajewski et al., 2002) solving written math problems, linking numbers to quantities |
– | Structural Equation Modeling: Informal activities → composite math at T4 (β = 0.18*) |
r(338) = 0.15, p = 0.00558 |
| Ciping et al. (2015) |
N: 177 Mage: T1: 6.7 T2: 7.7 |
Location: China SES: diverse |
Questionnaire; Formal and informal activities (adapted from LeFevre et al., 2009) at T1 and T2 |
Composite score of calculation fluency and Omitted number task at T1 and T2 | – | Significant paths: Composite math at T1 → formal activities at T2 (β = −0.15*) |
r(175) = −0.18, p = 0.01651 |
| Huntsinger et al. (2016) |
N: 97 Mage: T1: 4.9 T2: 5.8 |
Location: USA SES: middle |
Questionnaire: Formal and informal activities at T1 |
TEMA-2: Formal and informal subtests at T2 | – | Significant regressions: Formal activities at T1 → composite math at T2 (β = 0.13**) |
z = 2.43, p = 0.01510 |
| Baker (2015) |
N: 1,202 (boys and mothers) Mage: 5.6 |
Ethnicity: African-American SES: diverse |
Questionnaire: Home learning environment (HLE) (adapted from LeFevre et al., 2009) |
Math test battery: Understanding of numbers, geometry, and spatial relations |
– | Significant regressions: HLE → composite math (β = 0.06*) |
r(1, 200) = 0.08, p = 0.00552 |
| Melhuish et al. (2008) |
N: 2,354 Mage: T1: 3 T2: 5 T3: 7 |
Location: UK SES: diverse |
Questionnaire: Home learning environment (HLE) at T1 |
Early Number Concepts subscale of the British Ability Scales (BAS II; Elliot et al., 1996) at T2: details not provided
Nationally standardized math achievement test at T3 |
– | Significant regressions: HLE → composite math at T2 (effect size = 0.65) and T3 (effect size = 0.50) |
Not reported |
| Niklas and Schneider (2017) |
N: 434 Mage: T1: 4.8 T2: end of grade 1 T3: middle of grade 4 |
Location: Germany SES: low to medium |
Questionnaire: Home learning environment (HLE) at T1 |
Math battery (Krajewski, 2005) at T1 DEMAT 1+ at T2 Standardized and curriculum-based test KLASSE 4 (Lenhard et al., 2011): geometrical and written math problems at T3 |
– | Significant regressions: HLE → composite math at T3 (β = 0.72**) |
t(432) = 2.98, p = 0.00305 |
| Visser et al. (2019) |
N: 10376 Mage: T1: pre-Grade 1 T2: Grade 5 |
Location: South Africa SES: diverse |
Questionnaire: Home learning environment (HLE): reading–writing, playing games, songs–stories at T1 |
Math Achievement test at T2 | – | Significant regressions:Game-based HLE at T1 → Math skills at T2 (β = 0.17***) | r(10, 374) = 0.19, p ≤ 0.00001 |
| Section A.2 | |||||||
| Elliott et al. (2017) |
N: 54 (mothers) Mage: 5.8 |
Location: USA SES: high |
Observation: Semi-structured play for 10 min with toys, such as books, kitchen tools, puppets, cash register |
Form A of TEMA-3: Verbal counting, comparison, numeral literacy, number facts, calculation, number concepts |
– | Significant regressions: Maternal advanced math talk → composite math (β = 0.42*) |
r(52) = 0.39, p =0.00355 |
| Leyva (2019) |
N: 210 Mage: T1: beginning of prekindergarten T2: end of kindergarten |
Location: Chile SES: low |
Observation: Parent–child interaction during grocery game play at T1 |
Applied Problems subset of the Woodcock–Muñoz Bateria III (among other skills, counting, comparing quantities, adding, and/or subtracting) at T2 | – | Significant relations: Math support at T1 → Math skills at T2 (d = 0.13) |
Not reported |
| Susperreguy and Davis-Kean (2016) |
N: 40 (mothers) Mage: T1: 4.5 T2: 5.6 |
Location: USA SES: diverse |
Observation: Unstructured parent–child interaction during meal times for 2 days at T1 |
TEMA-3 at T2 | – | Significant regressions: Maternal math talk → composite math (β = 0.31*) |
t(31) = 2.18, p = 0.03697 |
| Leyva et al. (2019) |
N: 208 Mage: 6.6 1st grade |
Ethnicity: Chinese, Mexican African-American, and Dominican living in the USA SES: low |
Observation: Parent–child interaction during grocery game play |
Woodcock–Johnson III Tests of Achievement: number calculation (counting, adding, subtracting, and comparing quantities) and math concepts (understanding whole-number place value) | – | Significant result of interest: None |
Not available |
| Zhou et al. (2006) |
N: 85 Mage: 4 |
Location: China SES diverse: |
Observation: Semi-structured activities for 15 min each, book reading, paper activity, worksheet, blocks | Composite score of three versions of give-a-number task | – | Significant result of interest: None |
Not available |
| Section A.3 | |||||||
| Lehrl et al. (2019) |
N: 229 Mage: T1: 3 T2: 4 T3: 5 T5: 12 |
Location: Germany SES: diverse |
Questionnaire: Formal activities Observation: Semi-structured book reading at T1, T2, and T3 |
Numerical skills: subscale “arithmetic” of the German Version of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) at T3 Mathematics: content-related subtest (quantity, space and shape, change and relationship, data and change) and Process-related subtest (applying technical skills, modeling, arguing, communicating, representing, problem solving) at T5 |
– | Significant regressions: Math talk → mathematics at T5 (β = 0.13*) |
r(227) = 0.20, p = 0.00236 |
| Ramani et al. (2015) |
N: 33 Mage: 4.3 |
Ethnicity: Caucasian, African-American, Hispanic living in the USA SES: low |
Observation: Semi-structured parent–child interaction during book reading, puzzle making, and board game playing Questionnaire: Formal and informal activities (adapted from LeFevre et al., 2009) |
Composite score of basic math skills: verbal counting and number identification Advanced math skills: counting principles, enumeration and cardinality, number line estimation and comparison |
– | Significant regressions: Formal activities → basic composite math (β = 0.34*) Advanced math talk → advanced composite math skills (β = 0.33*) |
r(31) = 0.55, p = 0.00091 |
| Section B.1 | |||||||
| Dearing et al. (2012) |
N: 127 Mage: 6.7 |
Ethnicity: Latino, Asian, African-American and White living in the USA SES: diverse |
Questionnaire: Formal activities (adapted from LeFevre et al., 2009) and home learning environment (HLE) |
– | Calculations: addition and subtraction | Structural equation models: HLE → calculations (r = 0.19*) Formal activities → calculations (r = 0.29*) |
r(125) = 0.19, p = 0.03239 |
| Kleemans et al. (2013) |
N: 150 Mage: T1: 6 at kindergarten T2: 7 at 1st grade |
Location: The Netherlands SES: middle to high |
Questionnaire: Formal activities → (adapted from LeFevre et al., 2009) at T1 |
– | Calculations: addition and subtraction at T2 | Significant regressions:Formal activities → addition (β = 0.24***)Formal activities → subtraction(β = 0.23**) | r(148) = 0.63, p <0.00001 |
| Kleemans et al. (2018) |
N: 103 Mage: T1: 6 at kindergarten T3: 8 at 2nd grade |
Location: The Netherlands SES: middle to high |
Questionnaire: Formal activities (adapted from LeFevre et al., 2009) at T1 | – | Calculations: addition and subtraction with small and large numbers at T3 | Significant regression: Formal activities → large numbers arithmetic (β = 0.22***) |
r(101) = 0.41, p = 0.00002 |
| Huang et al. (2017) |
N: 104 (mothers & fathers) Mage: 5 |
Location: China SES: N/A |
Questionnaire: Formal and informal activities (adapted from LeFevre et al., 2009) |
– | Calculations: Verbal story problems and written arithmetic problems |
Significant regressions: Mothers number practices (β = 0.32*) and number book activities (β = −0.31*) → story problems Mothers' number practices (β = 0.35*) and fathers' games (β = 0.29*) and applications (β = 0.30*) → written arithmetic |
r(100) = 0.20, p = 0.04386 |
| Benavides-Varela et al. (2016) |
N: 110 Mage: 5.9 |
Location: Italy SES: diverse |
Questionnaire: Informal activities (playing board game) |
– | Five tasks: Counting, one-to-one correspondence, magnitude comparison, number line task, everyday numerical problems |
Significant correlations: Informal activities → counting (r = 0.31*) |
r(108) = 0.31, p = 0.00098 |
| Mutaf-Yildiz et al. (2018a) |
N: 128 Mage: 5.4 |
Location: Belgium SES: middle to high |
Questionnaire: Formal and informal activities (adapted from LeFevre et al., 2009) |
– | Basic number skills: Non-symbolic and symbolic comparison Non-symbolic and symbolic number line estimation Enumeration and connecting Pictorial and symbolic calculations |
Significant regressions: Formal activities → enumeration (β = 0.21*) Informal activities → symbolic number line (β = −0.18*) Informal activities → pictorial calculation (β = 0.17*) |
r(126) = 0.21, p = 0.01735 |
| Vasilyeva et al. (2018) |
N: 98 Mage: T1: 5.8 T2: 6.8 |
Location: Russia SES: N/A |
Questionnaire: Formal and informal activities at T1 | – | 4 tasks: Raven's test, number identification, numerical magnitude comparison, arithmetic at T2 |
Significant paths: Formal activities → number identification (effect size = 0.42**) Informal activities → magnitude comparison (effect size = 0.37*) Both activities → arithmetic (effect sizes = 0.30* and.39**) |
r(96) = 0.41, p = 0.00003 |
| Section B.2 | |||||||
| Levine et al. (2010) |
N: 44 Mage: (in months) T1: 14 m T2: 18 m T3: 22 m T4: 26 m T5: 30 m T6: 46 m |
Location: USA SES: diverse |
Observation: Unstructured activity sessions at T1, T2, T3, T4, and T5 |
– | Point-to-X-task at T6 | Significant regressions: Number talk → point-to-X (β = 0.29*) |
r(42) = 0.47, p = 0.00129 |
| Gunderson and Levine (2011) |
N: 44 Mage: (in months) T1: 14 m T2: 18 m T3: 22 m T4: 26 m T5: 30 m T6: 46 m |
Location: USA SES: diverse |
Observation: Unstructured activity sessions at T1, T2, T3, T4, and T5 |
– | Point-to-X-task at T6 | Significant regressions: Number talk with present objects in large sets (4–10) → point-to-X (β = 0.38*) |
Not reported |
| Glenn et al. (2018) |
N: 60 Mage: T1: 2 T2: 3.5 |
Location: USA SES: diverse |
Observation: Unstructured activity sessions at home for 90 min at T1 |
– | Point-to-X-task at T2 | Significant random effect intercept: Number talk → point-to-X (random effects intercept: 3.95***) |
Not reported |
| Section B.3 | |||||||
| Mutaf-Yildiz et al. (2018b) |
N: 44 Mage: 5.6 |
Location: Belgium SES: middle to high |
Questionnaire: Formal and informal activities (adapted from LeFevre et al., 2009) Observations: Semi-structured activities for 5 min each, book reading and Lego building |
– | Calculations: Addition and subtraction |
Significant correlations: Formal activities → calculation (r = 0.31*) Parent number talk → calculation (r = −0.35*) |
r(42) = 0.31, p = 0.04057 |
| Section C | |||||||
| LeFevre et al. (2009) |
N: 146 Mage: 6.5 |
Location: Canada SES: diverse |
Questionnaire: Formal and informal activities |
KeyMath Test–Revised Form B (Connolly, 2000): The Numeration subtest: “math concepts and number system knowledge,” including quantity, digit recognition, place value The addition and subtraction subtests |
Calculation fluency (single-digit addition) | Significant regression: Game activities → composite math (β = 0.18*) Number skills (β = 0.21*) games (β = 0.21*), and application activities (β = 0.24*) → math fluency |
r(144) = 0.27, p = 0.00098 |
| Manolitsis et al. (2013) |
N: 82 Mage: 5.4 T1 beginning of KG T2 end of KG T3 end of 1st grade |
Location: Greece SES: diverse |
Questionnaire: Formal activities (adapted from LeFevre et al., 2009) |
TEMA-3: Cardinality rule, seriation of numbers, naming of single-digit numbers, and number comparison at T1 and T2 |
Counting at T1 and 2 Math fluency at T3 |
Significant correlations: Formal activities and counting at T1 (r = 0.28*) |
r(80) = 0.28, p = 0.01084 |
| Skwarchuk et al. (2014) |
N: 121 Mage: 5.8 |
Location: Canada SES: diverse |
Questionnaire: Formal activities and informal home numeracy (knowledge of commercially available number games) |
The Numeration subtest of Key Math–Revised | Non-symbolic arithmetic | Significant regressions: Informal activities → non-symbolic arithmetic (β = 0.20*) Advanced formal activities → math (β = 0.21*) |
r(119) = 0.30, p = 0.00083 |
| Missall et al. (2015) |
N: 72 Mage: 4.4 |
Ethnicity: White, Hispanic, Asian, multiracial living in the USA SES: diverse |
Questionnaire: Numeracy activities |
The quantitative subtest and the School Readiness Composite of Bracken Basic Concepts Scale—Third edition: Receptive (BBCS-3:R; Bracken, 2006) | The Individual Growth and Development Indicators of Early Numeracy (IGDIs-EN; Hojnoski and Floyd, 2013); One-to-one correspondence, verbal counting, number naming, and quantity comparison |
Significant correlations: None Significant regressions: None |
Not available |
*
p < 0.05,
**
p < 0.01, and
***
p < 0.001.