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A growing body of research has shown that parent–child math activities predict children's math competence. However, observational studies are limited. This study investigated maternal and paternal scaffolding behaviours in three types of parent–child math activities (i.e., worksheet, game and application activities) and their associations with children's formal and informal math abilities. Ninety‐six 5–6‐year‐olds participated in this study with their mothers and fathers. All children completed three activities with their mothers and three comparable activities with their fathers. Parental scaffolding was coded for each parent–child dyadic activity. Children's formal and informal math abilities were tested individually using the Test of Early Mathematics Ability. Results showed that both mothers' and fathers' scaffolding in application activities significantly predicted their children's formal math ability even after controlling for background variables and their scaffoldings in the other two types of math activities. The findings highlight the importance of parent–child application activities in children's math learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several honesty promotion techniques have been established for children living in Western cultures; however, limited research has examined the effectiveness of these techniques among non‐Western children. Recently, inducing self‐awareness (by looking at oneself in a mirror) was found to be effective in promoting young Western children's honesty. The present investigation compared the effectiveness of this self‐awareness technique to a novel other‐awareness technique (looking at a photograph of a peer) in promoting young Chinese children's honesty. Chinese children aged 3 and 4 years (N = 121) completed a modified temptation resistance paradigm where they were requested not to peek at a toy in the experimenter's absence. Children were randomly assigned to a Self‐Awareness, Peer (other‐awareness), or Control condition. When asked whether they peeked at the toy, children in the Self‐Awareness condition were significantly more likely to tell the truth compared to those in the Control condition. No significant differences in truth‐telling emerged between the Peer and Control conditions. The present results demonstrate the cross‐cultural application of self‐awareness as an honesty promoting technique with young children. Statement of contributionWhat is already known on this subject?High rates of dishonesty persist across cultures.Social and cultural values can shape lie‐telling behaviours.Inducing self‐awareness promotes honesty in Western children.What does this study add?A tool for promoting honesty in non‐Western cultures.Inducing self‐awareness promotes honesty in Chinese children.Inducing other‐awareness was not effective in promoting honesty in Chinese children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much research on literacy development has focused on learners of alphabetic writing systems. Researchers have hypothesized that children learn about the formal characteristics of writing before they learn about the relations between units of writing and units of speech. We tested this hypothesis by examining young Chinese children's understanding of writing. Mandarin-speaking 2- to 5-year-olds completed a graphic task, which tapped their knowledge about the formal characteristics of writing, and a phonological task, which tapped their knowledge about the correspondence between Chinese characters and syllables. The 3- to 5-year-olds performed better on the graphic task than the phonological task, indicating that learning how writing appears visually begins earlier than learning that writing corresponds to linguistic units, even in a writing system in which written units correspond to syllables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]