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ABSTRACT As women are underrepresented in STEM and the home learning environment has been associated with children's science knowledge, this study focuses on the home science environment as an area where gender differences may occur. To identify potential antecedents of gender differences, this study examined whether there were mean differences in the frequency of parent engagement in science content, processes and resources by child gender and parent relation. 906 parents of 1‐ to 6‐year‐old children (67% female, 86% White, 50% female children) completed a cross‐sectional online survey about the home science environment. Results indicate no significant differences in the frequency of science engagement between parents of girls and parents of boys and between mothers and fathers (η² < 0.01). We did not find any significant gender differences in parents' reports of their frequency of engagement in early home science activities across content, processes and resources. 

Children’s early understanding of mathematics provides a foundation for later success in school. Identifying ways to enhance mathematical instruction is crucial to understanding the ideal ways to promote academic success. Previous work has identified mathematical language (i.e., the words and concepts related to early mathematical development such as more, same, or similar) as a key mechanism that can be targeted to improve children’s development of early numeracy skills (e.g., counting, cardinality, and addition). Current recommendations suggest a combination of numeracy instruction and quantitative language instruction to promote numeracy skills. However, there is limited direct support of this recommendation. The goal of the proposed study is to compare the unique and combined effects of each type of instruction on children’s numeracy skills in the context of picture book reading. We randomly assigned 234 children (ages 3–5) to one of four conditions where they worked with trained project staff who read picture books targeting: (a) quantitative language only (e.g., more or less), (b) numeracy only (e.g., cardinality, addition), (c) combined [quantitative language + numeracy], or (d) nonnumerical (active control) picture books. Results revealed no significant effects of the quantitative language only or numeracy only conditions, but mixed effects of the combined condition. These findings indicate that more work is needed on how mathematical language and numeracy instruction should best be delivered to preschool children.