About this session

Saturday, 12:10 PM - 1:40 PM

Understanding Parent Practices and Perspectives during Informal STEM Learning for Early Childhood

As research on families’ role within early STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) learning progresses, there is an expanding view of parent and caregiver practices and perspectives that contribute to children’s learning. While much research has emphasized domain-specific input as a predictor of children’s STEM outcomes (e.g., Silver et al., 2024), it is important to consider additional parent variables as well. This symposium focuses on a range of parent practices and perspectives that facilitate STEM learning in everyday activities. First, Talk 1 examines the nature and variability of parental questioning during informal science activities, distinguishing among parents’ use of close-ended and open-ended questions as predictors of children’s science talk and inquiry understanding. Next, Talk 2 examines how parents’ autonomy-supportive language during everyday activities varies when they have received resources intended to increase parent-child math engagement. Talk 3 examines the praise that parents provide during informal math interactions with preschoolers and how their own beliefs about the fixedness of math ability influenced their praise. Finally, Talk 4 examines caregivers’ views towards math learning within the context of a Mexican craft activity called papel picado as a means of more closely investigating caregivers’ views around the value of activities with opportunities for math. This symposium sheds light on various ways that families can contribute to STEM learning during informal activities for their preschoolers, while also identifying promising directions for family STEM engagement research.

Paper #1
Title	Balancing Quality and Quantity: How Parental Questioning Supports Preschool-Aged Children's Science Talk and Inquiry
Presenting author	Kathryn Anne Leech, Ph.D., UNC-Chapel Hill, United States

Paper #2
Title	Does a math talk intervention also promote parental autonomy support for preschool aged children?
Presenting author	Salvador R. Vazquez, Ph.D., Purdue University, United States

Paper #3
Title	Beliefs at Play: Examining Parental Beliefs and Praise during Preschool Math Interactions
Presenting author	Sivan Lurie, University of Maryland College Park, United States

Paper #4
Title	“Es Elemental”: Latine Caregivers’ Beliefs about Math in the Mexican Craft of Papel Picado
Presenting author	Paola Montufar Soria, New York University, United States

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Session chairs
Salvador R. Vazquez, Ph.D., Purdue University, United States; Dr. Sarah H. Eason, Ph.D., , United States

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