Six governors have urged prominent health organizations to issue guidance urging parents to use games and everyday activities to help their young children build numeracy skills at home—matching an emphasis on early literacy.
Influential guidance issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2014 and 2024 urged doctors to stress the importance of parents reading, talking, and singing with children, starting at birth, to boost literacy skills. The governors urged the organization or the U.S. Surgeon General’s office to issue a parallel directive “recommending a specific weekly amount of numeracy-enriching play for young children.”
“Much like daily reading supports literacy, regular numeracy play nurtures a child’s comfort with numbers and problem-solving, yet there is currently no clear national guidance encouraging families to make it a routine part of everyday life,” said a July 23 petition signed by Governors Daniel McKee of Rhode Island, Wes Moore of Maryland, Jared Polis of Colorado, Ned Lamont of Connecticut, Matt Meyer of Delaware, and Josh Stein of North Carolina, all Democrats.
The push is spearheaded by the Collaborative for Student Success, a nonprofit advocacy organization, as part of its “We’re All Solvers” campaign to raise math achievement. The petition is also signed by educators and researchers and invites additional signatures online.
Representatives from the AAP and the Surgeon General’s Office did not respond to emailed questions from Education Week.
Public messaging around reading to children for at least 15 minutes a day “has been remarkably successful in embedding that as a milestone that parents internalize,” said Joshua Parrish, director of communications and engagement for the Collaborative for Student Success. “The thinking here is, let’s have clarity and see what the expert thought is in numeracy.”
Number play can include simple routines like sorting and counting toys
Researchers have found that children’s early math skills are predictors of later academic success and that more chances to interact with numbers at home can boost children’s comfort and skill in math.
A 2020 study found preschoolers whose parents gave them frequent opportunities to do simple math problems and games at home showed better arithmetic growth and performance by the end of kindergarten than children with less-engaging early math environments at home.
Number play can include simple routines like sorting and counting toys, adding and subtracting everyday objects, inviting children to help measure ingredients for a recipe, or playing board and card games that involve numbers or counting.
“The games that build early math are the ones where a child engaged in numeracy-based thinking: counting spaces, comparing quantities, matching and sorting, spotting a pattern, sequencing, judging what’s likely, or thinking a move ahead,” a frequently asked questions page accompanying the governors’ petition says. “A game of Uno or Yahtzee or a simple card game does this, as may more complex board, card, or active games. We are not endorsing specific titles or brands—we are asking the experts to define what qualifies, which is exactly the kind of judgment pediatric guidance is built to make.”
While reading to children may seem more intuitive and accessible, parents’ own anxiety and discomfort with math may make them less deliberate about building similar habits with numbers, Parrish said.
“There is a culture of math anxiety or more cultural acceptance to say, ‘I’m just not a math person’ or to think that numeracy and mathematical thinking are not your domain,” he said. “That mindset is a real, tangible barrier to those productive conversations with parents, educators, and leaders themselves.”
