The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) (1989) "advocates the use of children’s books as a vehicle for communicating mathematical ideas"(p.5). In many respects, when teachers use children’s literature, we try to emulate in our classroom the shared reading experiences that many children who learn to read prior to schooling have had in their homes (Holdaway, 1979). That said, despite the centrality that storybook reading has been afforded in the teaching/ learning of print and mathematical literacy in many primary classrooms, there is a relative dearth of research as to what actually occurs when parents read with their young children. We propose that research which documents the interactions in which mathematics is a focus within parent/child shared book reading is warranted.

In our collaborative research, we investigate emergence and mediation of multiple literacies in young children. For this paper, we investigate the verbal interactions between parent and child in which mathematics arises during shared storybook reading. To do so, we merge the data of two studies in which 33 parents were asked to share children’s books with their 4 year old child.

Several theoretical perspectives inform this work. First, like Golden and Gerber (1990), we believe "A picture book narrative..., has the potential of generating multiple interpretations depending upon what the symbol offers, what the reader brings and how the text is mediated by participants in a social context"(p. 205). Thus, we see storybook reading as a semiotic event. Also influencing this research is social constructivist theory. For example, Rogoff (1990) theorizes that young children come to understand their world as a result of social interactions with significant others. We also recognize that children, through processes of accommodation and assimilation, construct their own knowledge. And finally Donaldson’s (1978) notion of contextualised learning informs our research, to the extent that we argue that storybook reading is a site for contextualised mathematical learning.

In recent years, mathematics educators have taken advantage of developments in language and literacy to effect changes in the teaching and learning of mathematics. A burgeoning interest in using children's literature to enhance mathematics learning (e.g. Welchman-Tischler, 1992) is one such development. Although Griffiths and Clyne (1991) indicate that "building on the mathematics which is implicit or explicit in a book ... can assist children in developing concepts, solving problems and making connections" (p.10), much of the research to date has occurred in classroom settings in which the children’s literature is used as a springboard to mathematical activity.

There is a significant research base in early literacy documenting young children’s emerging literacy knowledge. This research, a great deal of which has involved preschool children, has shown that: (1) children learn much about literacy before they commence school and (2) shared book reading appears to play a central role in this early literacy development (Sulzby and Teale, 1991). In contrast, research into early mathematical literacy is limited and although researchers (e.g. Kamii & Lewis, 1990) confirm that children enter school possessing much mathematical knowledge, little is known about the qualitative nature of their experiences prior to school which contribute to the development of this knowledge. Researchers (Saxe, Guberman, & Gearhart, 1987; Young Loveridge, 1989; Anderson, 1998) assert that daily conversations, activities and games in the home contribute to children's early mathematics knowledge. Studies into children’s early mathematics learning (Anderson, 1991;1997; Phillips & Anderson, 1993) also point to bedtime reading as occasions when mathematics is shared. In a case study of one child’s early learning of mathematics through children’s literature, Anderson & Anderson (1995) document how mathematics can constitute an integral part of shared book readings (Cochran-Smith,1983).

For the purpose of this paper, data from 45 parent-child shared book reading episodes are examined. In a study of 21 middle class parents and their 4-year old children, each parent audio taped a session in which they and their child shared the picture book One Snowy Night (Butterworth, 1989). In a second study of 12 middle class parents and their 4-year old children, each parent and child was video taped as they shared two picture books, Swimmy (Lionni, 1991) and Mr. McMouse (Lionni, 1992), during one session. In both studies the books were provided by the researchers and the parents chose a convenient time and place for the shared reading activity. The majority of parents read to their child in the home setting. Parents were asked to "Share the book as you normally would with your child.". The audio and video tapes of the shared reading were transcribed in full for each parent-child dyad. In turn, these transcripts of 45 shared readings of 33 parents and children were coded as to interactions in which the children or parents attended to mathematics and the data were then analyzed. It should be noted that Study 1 yielded 21 book reading episodes (i.e. 21 parents and children sharing one book) and Study 2 yielded 24 book reading episodes (i.e. 12 parents sharing two books each with their child) for a total of 45 book reading episodes. Parent-child interactions were coded using appropriate descriptive labels for the mathematics which arose (e.g. size, number, estimation, counting, shape). Both parent comments and child comments were coded and the frequency of each type of mathematics reference was noted. Parent- child mathematics-related interactions were examined in terms of varied aspects of the shared reading context (e.g. text; story line; illustrations). Trends and unique characteristics of these interactions within and across families and books were considered.

The participants were 33 parents (28 mothers, 5 fathers) and their 4 year old children (18 daughters, 15 sons).The majority of the children were enrolled in university and college childcare facilities. The parents are well educated, and these homes are best characterized as middle class, although family income at the time of the study might be relatively low, since in many cases one of the parents was enrolled in post-secondary education.

The researchers provided the storybooks to permit comparisons across dyads with regard to how the books were shared. All three books were considered to have equal potential for stimulating conversations around various mathematical concepts including number, counting, size, estimation and shape. Swimmy and Mr. McMouse books were recommended by an expert in children’s literature as suitable for readers from diverse backgrounds and cultures, and were deemed by the researchers to have sufficient print- and math-related attributes to warrant their use. One Snowy Night was chosen based on its appealing story line which implied math-related ideas.

The storybooks used would not be considered as "counting", "shape", or "size" books; that is, they do not have explicit mathematical foci. None of the books named conventional shapes in the text nor did they show two-dimensional shapes in illustrations other than in context (i.e. a door is a rectangle shape). However, in two of these books, portions of the text included number words (e.g. a lullaby in Mr. McMouse, "One two three,..., seven. All these sheep will go to heaven ..." and in describing animals (such as "...two shivering rabbits...") in One Snowy Night). In Swimmy, explicit size referents were made (e.g. "...swim like one giant fish..."). Each book had illustrations in which multiple items or characters were present thus providing an opportunity for counting or estimation. Other illustrations had inviting "objects" which stood out and possessed different size or shape (e.g. the smooth round rocks in Mr. McMouse, the very long eel in Swimmy). Sometimes the story line possessed a feature which might prompt a reader to ask math-related questions (e.g. in One Snowy Night, varied numbers of animals seek shelter in the zookeeper’s hut at various times, sometimes prompting readers to wonder "how many now?" or "how many in all?").

Findings show that a variety of mathematical concepts arose during shared book reading. Size, number, counting were the most prevalent; less attention was given to estimation, and shape received minimal attention during these shared reading episodes. Eleven of the 45 sessions had no mathematics-related interactions, and 7 of those 11 sessions occurred when parents read Mr. McMouse. Fifteen of the sessions had 5 or more occasions where mathematics related comments were made. Four of the sessions had more than 15 mathematics related interactions.

The amount of mathematics present in parent-child interactions varied tremendously across families. The mathematics shared was embedded in the meaning making, and no parents engaged their child in mathematics unassociated with the shared reading experience. Six families accounted for almost one-half the interactions around mathematics, with four of the most interactive episodes occurring during the shared reading of One Snowy Night, with the fifth most interactive episode occurring around Swimmy. On the other hand, four of the 33 families did not engage in mathematics-related interactions, excepting of course specific mathematical referents embedded in the text. And, 17 of the remaining 29 families demonstrated 5 or more math-related interactions during their shared reading episode.

The amount of mathematics was also varied across books being read. Whereas size arose almost equally in Swimmy and One Snowy Night, counting and number occurred largely in readings of One Snowy Night. The mathematics referents which occurred in readings of Mr. McMouse focused on size and number. The mathematics shared was closely linked with the text, story line, or illustration in particular episodes, with illustrations giving rise to more mathematical interactions than the text. That is, parents and children were viewing, and at times pointing to, illustrations during the math-related conversations, rather than pointing to words. In One Snowy Night, a particular illustration (i.e. a picture of several animals standing on Percy’s front steps) proved to be a focal point for discussion about mathematics, with a second picture (i.e. the animals are scattered throughout Percy’s room) drawing considerable attention as well. Also, in One Snowy Night, the story line which involves the gathering of animals in a zookeeper’s bed seemed to influence the notions of adding on and finding a total, with "how many in the bed now?" being a common question. In Swimmy, three particular illustrations (i.e. the strange fish..., the eel...,the fish made form little fish...) were more common sources of mathematical commentary across families, with each of these illustrations generating an equal number of responses. In Mr. McMouse the few mathematics-related comments appeared to be made randomly, as no particular illustration generated mathematics-related responses across families.

When we examine the types of mathematics concepts shared, we see trends with respect to the book readings in which certain concepts were emphasized. For instance, 11 of the 12 families who shared Swimmy demonstrated at least one size-related interaction; whereas, in One Snowy Night, 6 of the 21 families account for the interactions pertaining to size, with one family accounting for more than half of the size-related interactions occurring in this book. An opposite trend was apparent when number and counting are considered, in that almost all of these interactions occurred in One Snowy Night. Although 14 of 21 families who shared One Snowy Night demonstrated at least one interaction regarding counting or number, four of those families account for two-thirds of the interactions. One family accounted for one half of the interactions around counting and number which arose when Swimmy and Mr. McMouse were shared.

Most of the size-related interactions, particularly those within readings of Swimmy, were initiated by the parents and in most cases children did not echo nor respond to the parents’ comments. On the other hand, number-related interactions within the readings of One Snowy Night, mainly occurred with three families and for two of those both parent and child used number almost equally. In nine of the 12 families where counting occurred when they shared One Snowy Night, the children did all of the counting. Thus, there seems to be a trend where parents more so than children used size related words and children more than parents used number words and counting sequences.

This study shows that storybook reading can be a site for mathematics related interactions. When parents and children read books together attention is paid to mathematics related ideas such as counting, number and size in the context of making meaning of the story. Families varied considerably in the frequency with which they included mathematics as well as in the type of comments they made regarding particular concepts. Much of the classroom research regarding mathematics and storybook reading focuses on using children’s literature as a springboard from which follow-up mathematics activities are generated. This study suggests that for young children and parents in the home, the conversations and discussions and utilization of mathematical concepts are embedded within the reading, to help children make meaning of the story. Some of the families in this study did not engage in mathematics related interactions during shared book reading. That these parents did not attend to mathematics in these particular episodes should not be taken as evidence that this would be the case in all shared reading events. Whether these parents find opportunities to explore mathematics with their children in other books they choose remains open to question. The results of this study suggest that particular books tend to elicit different kinds of mathematical interactions. Although the prevalence of number and counting aligns with what we know of parents’ (and schools’) tendency to equate mathematics with arithmetic, it was heartening that references to other concepts such as size were present. Equally encouraging was that some of these parents demonstrated intuitive knowledge of strategies that are developmentally appropriate for children of this age group.

The significance of this study is that it begins to show how parent-child shared book reading - a mainstay of literacy learning in middle class homes - provides a context for the learning of mathematics. Thereby, it affords researchers and educators in mathematics and reading an opportunity to broaden their understanding of the opportunities and constraints such shared reading contexts offer for the emergence and mediation of multiple literacies.

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