– In families with young children, mathematics is much more often considered a subject of stress and anxiety than a source of pleasure and interest. A hundred people gathered at a recent conference on early math fluency to discuss this issue, with the goal to find ways to help parents integrate math into the daily activities of their children and prepare them to succeed in school.

– “Parents too often avoid engaging their children in mathematical thinking and convey their negative attitudes to their children, and a cycle of math phobia becomes self-perpetuating,” said Susan Levin, the Rebecca Anne Boylan Professor in Education and Society and the inaugural director of the University’s Science of Learning Center. The purpose of the center is to make math a priority in families and assess the effectiveness of books, games and toys on children’s math development.

– The conference participants aim to launch a national campaign similar to the one that is already under way in order to promote early literacy. “We need to level the playing field, because research shows that kindergarten students behind in math tend to stay behind later,” said Levin.

Pure Mathematics (Wikimedia)

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