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Parents boost STEM skills by scaffolding children’s attention and discovery during play, but many need support to do so. Using Human Centered Design (HCD) methods, we created activity kits fostering parents’ (a) involvement in and (b) valuing of parent-child play to promote preschoolers’ STEM skills. Study 1 documents how HCD methods informed the design of guided activity kits. In initial home visits, we videorecorded 6 parent-child dyads playing with basic building materials. Play revealed minimal parental STEM scaffolding and talk. Collaborating with 18 families and drawing on prior research, parent interviews, videotaped play sessions, and advisory-board members’ expertise, the interdisciplinary research team designed and refined activity kit prototypes. Study 2 was a randomized field test comparing use and evaluation of final guided kits (n=50) versus basic kits (n=25) which contained identical building materials and challenges but omitted scaffolding guides. Both groups received a kit by mail every other week for 10 weeks. Relative to parents given basic kits, parents given guided kits (a) reported significantly more sustained use of the kits across the 10 weeks, (b) felt more self-efficacy in fostering their child’s STEM learning, and (c) judged that their child had achieved greater STEM-skill learning from program use.
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This content will become publicly available on January 1, 2026
Linking parents’ play strategies with their preschoolers’ STEM skills: The mediating roles of child STEM talk and self-regulated learning
Previous studies document associations between parents’ use of guided play strategies and children’s STEM skills. We extended existing research by exploring mediating mechanisms that may account for these links. Parents played with their preschool children (N=75; 49% girls, 51% boys; 94% White, 3% Black, 1% Biracial, 1% Asian, 1% Native American; Mage = 4.82 years), undertaking a building challenge. Videotaped play was coded for parents’ guiding STEM talk (density of math, spatial, and scientific inquiry language) and management strategy (high- vs. low-directiveness). Mediators included children’s STEM talk during play and self-regulated learning (assessed by executive function tests and examiner’s ratings of children’s task orientation). Structural equation models confirmed hypothesized mediated paths from parent STEM talk to child math (but not spatial) skills via child STEM talk, and from parent STEM talk and directiveness to child math and spatial skills via child self-regulated learning. We discuss implications for future research and intervention design.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1811472
- PAR ID:
- 10553520
- Publisher / Repository:
- Elsevier
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
- Volume:
- 249
- Issue:
- C
- ISSN:
- 0022-0965
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 106095
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- parenting strategies, play, preschool, STEM skills, self-regulated learning
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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