What is Math Talk?

My preschooler and I were playing with sidewalk chalk. "What color would you like?" she asked. Looking at the choices, I noticed she grouped the chalk by size — small chipped pieces in one pile and larger in another. We rearranged the pieces into patterns and thought of other ways to group, count, and order the chalk. Our afternoon drawing rainbows on the sidewalk became a learning experience simply by noticing the math and talking about it together.

Math talk is the words you use to point out early math concepts in your everyday life with kids. Using your voice to talk aloud is a key way to support your child as they learn essential social, language and math skills before kindergarten. Research shows that talking, reading, or singing to young children, even before they are verbal, is one of the best ways you can support early brain development and set the stage for school success.

Math talk is a simple concept of talking about math out loud, and you don't need to be a preschool teacher, have a math degree, or set aside designated time to do it. You can strengthen everyday conversations by adding a bit of math to the dialogue. When you incorporate math vocabulary into these language-rich experiences, you are helping children notice the math all around, says the Development and Research in Early Math Education Network.

As your child's first teacher, you already have the expertise, skills and resources to use "math talk" regularly and often. You might start by adding small opportunities to use math talk during daily routines.

• At breakfast, make a pattern with the foods on your plates — for example, cereal, banana slice, cereal, banana slice. You might ask, "Can you make a new pattern on your plate?" or talk aloud as you rearrange the food by color or size.
• On the way to preschool, talk about how buildings, signs and cars are "next to," "across from," or "above" each other. These terms promote spatial sense (also called location and position words) and directional concepts.
• At sports practice, point out the ways the coach sorts the players and organizes the equipment by their attributes, or the characteristics used to describe a group of objects. Say the player's uniform number or the points scored. Notice the shape of the field and surrounding spaces.
• Walking through the grocery store, find shapes like rectangle cereal boxes, round soup cans and the triangle top of a milk carton. Count the quantity of items out loud, and say the number on the price tag together.
• At every mealtime, talk through each step during prep. Have your child count or measure the ingredients. Order the steps in the process from the first, then second and third. Portion out the servings on plates and compare sizes using terms like "greater than," "less than," or "equal to."
• When reading at bedtime, count and order the number of books together from first, second and last. Remember, reading and talking are great predictors of academic success. Read books together whenever possible. Find the shapes, count the characters or notice patterns in the words for added math fun.

Once you add math talk to your daily routines, you might find how easy it is to continue the conversations into other learning experiences.

10 Easy Ways to Add Math Twists to Everyday Family Activities

Make it Playful, Silly!
Highlight how math can be fun! Turn learning opportunities into games whenever possible. "How many green cars can we find on the way to preschool?" Use spatial terms when playing hide-and-seek. You can ask, "Are you hiding next to the tree? Are you sitting under the desk?" Count and subtract the seats during a game of musical chairs by saying, "If we remove one chair, how many do we have left?"

Talk While Fixing Something Around the House
Become a mathematician-fixer-super-parent! For children who are not talking just yet, explain the process aloud using math-rich language. For example, "Right now, I am changing one lightbulb under the lampshade. There are now three new light bulbs left in the box to use next time." Phrases like these promote number sense. Engage in math-rich dialogue with your child by asking questions or giving prompts like, "How many lightbulbs can we find around the house?"

Math at the Party
Special occasions are chock full of math talk opportunities. How many guests will be attending? Where should everyone sit? What is the order of activities? What shapes do we see while hanging decorations? You might highlight the math talk while prepping or let your little one take the lead and point out the math to the family.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind as you try math talk with your family:

1. Use any language.The more frequently you talk with your children about math at home, in whatever language you are most comfortable with, the more their minds think about math, says the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
2. Talk often. The more you can incorporate math concepts and language into your conversations, the stronger their math confidence and awareness will be as they enter school.
3. No pressure. You wear many hats and juggle a ton during the day. Thankfully, you do not need to feel overwhelmed by math talk. It will come naturally once you start to notice the math around you. Celebrate your accomplishments as a caregiver and have confidence in yourself and your math skills.
4. Keep it simple. We can't expect our preschoolers to understand complex math concepts quickly. Children learn math in stages. For example, a child will learn to count from one to 10 in the correct order before they can correctly answer a question about how many objects they have. These stages can be quick or last for some time, and children do not always master one stage before moving on to the next. Remember to keep it age-appropriate, simple and to encourage their thinking.

Need a Quick Refresher on Early Math Concepts?

The more you understand math, the more confidence you may feel in your role and ability to use math talk daily. Use our resources to learn more about spatial sense, the words used to describe the position of an object to another, to brush up on number sense,the counting, comparing and ordering of numbers and to learn everything your kid needs to know about patterns. Check out key terms from the shapes glossary or the sorting and collecting glossary.

Whether you're chatting about grouping a set in the toy box or measuring the ingredients at dinner time, these small math talk conversations all add up!