Family STEM Practices

An early environment rich with learning opportunities can foster young children’s curiosity in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), and have a positive impact in their school success.  Early STEM learning supports young children’s early math development, problem solving skills, and critical thinking. At CFD, we seek to identify and understand the everyday family practices that support the development of early STEM skills, in particular early math skills for Spanish-speaking and Spanish-English bilingual children. We ask questions such as:

• What are the everyday interactions that support early math skills? 

• How often and in what ways do families engage in math talk? 

• What is the relation between these everyday math-related practices and children's school-based math learning? 

• What everyday interactions foster early engagement with scientific ideas and practices? 

See our latest publications here.