Help Children Build Positive Math Attitudes
By Cristina Carrazza, Michelle Hurst, and Susan Levine
Key Points:
- Children develop attitudes toward math through their interactions with parents and caregivers.
- Positive math attitudes support children’s interest in math learning.
- There are simple strategies that families can use to promote positive math attitudes.
Exploring math together as a family supports children’s early math development. But the learning goes beyond just the math content. The messages that parents and caregivers send to their children while engaging in math also shape the way that children think about math. These messages can help children form positive attitudes toward math, which can help them learn from their mistakes, reflect on their thinking, and stay motivated when a problem is challenging.
Encourage Positive Attitudes
Everyone can support children’s early math development. There are simple things that parents can do to help their children develop positive math attitudes. These practices help children see that math is a fun and powerful way to understand the world. When families enjoy math learning, children’s confidence in their ability to learn math grows.
To inspire and support families to engage in math learning together, the nonprofit Tandem, Partners in Early Learning collaborated with DREME to produce a collection of video resources that promote family math. The videos are short, free, and feature real families. Designed for families and professionals who work closely with families, the videos are suitable for home, community workshops, family playgroups, and parent-practitioner meetings.
The Encouraging Positive Math Attitudes video offers ideas for how families can create positive, enjoyable ways to explore math. Below we highlight the positive practices shown in the video.
Embrace Mistakes
Children practice their math skills by thinking about what steps led to their mistake. When children make a mistake, rather than solving the problem for them, try to pause and ask questions about their thinking. If children start to lose interest or get frustrated, take a break and return to the activity later.
Ask Questions
Parents can use this information to modify their questions and activities. For example:
- How did you figure that out?
- What are you doing?
- How did you know?
- What are some other ways we can try?
Praise Effort
An effective way to praise effort is to notice specific things children are doing during the math activity. For example:
- Good job counting!
- I saw you point to each object. That was a great way to keep track!
- I like how you kept trying to solve the problem!
- Great work. You had a good idea about how to share the toys fairly!
Stay Positive
If a child is excited about a math activity, they may work on it even without encouragement. If a child gets frustrated or does not understand something, show them what they did right. Encourage them to try again using a different strategy or a new approach. It is also OK — and sometimes important — to take a break.
By focusing on children’s thinking, parents can help them build positive attitudes toward math. This will increase children’s interest in math and support their math learning.
Put These Tips into Practice
Explore the collection of videos here, including ideas for bringing math learning into everyday family life.
Cristina Carrazza is a doctoral student in Developmental Psychology at the University of Chicago. Michelle Hurst is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago. Susan Levine, PhD, is the Rebecca Anne Boylan Professor of Education and Society in the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago. The authors are members of the DREME Family Math project.
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