It’s common knowledge that parents should talk and read to their young children. But are there similar things that parents can do to lay the foundation for success in math? A new wave of research says yes. Here are three takeaways from 22 studies conducted over the past dozen years: The link between parent math talk and higher math skills Researchers found that the more parents talked about math with their children, the stronger their children’s math skills. In these studies, researchers typically observed parents and children interacting in a university lab, a school, a museum or at home and kept track of how often parents mentioned numbers or shapes.