Hi! My name is Abby Liebe, and I am a senior at the Univeristy of Pittsburgh majoring in psychology with minors in studio arts and secondary education, as well as a certificate in children’s literature. I am from Palmyra, NJ and love spending my time at home at the shore or at the local bagel cafe. Outside of academics, I enjoy art, volunteering with the elderly, running, and collecting CD’s. Currently, I am working at Western Psychiatric Hospital as a Student Behavioral Associate on the Integrated Health and Aging Program (IHAP) with geriatric patients. 

After graduation this spring, I plan to pursue an MS in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. Afterwards, I hope to work with underserved communities as a school counselor, possibly going back to school to become a school psychologist. During my time in college, I have found a passion for developmental psychology, especially its applications for education. Seeking out opportunities to become involved in research related to these areas, I began working in the Kids’ Thinking Lab at the Learning Research and Development Center at Pitt. The Kids’ Thinking Lab studies the emergence of children’s cognitive skills, specifically early concepts of numbers and how these foundations may influence math skills later in life. Working in the lab under the guidance of Dr. Melissa Libertus and other research staff, I have had the opportunity to develop my interests in the fields of psychology and education. Applying to the Chancellor’s Undergraduate Research Fellowship has been the next step towards furthering my involvement in the field and gaining a better understanding of the importance of early childhood research for education interventions.

During my time in the Kids’ Thinking Lab I have worked on the Parents Promoting Early Learning Project (PPEL) transcribing and coding recorded parent-child dyads’ play sessions at home to measure use of quantifier terms (e.g., “more”, “less”, “fewer”, and “many”). This type of language may be particularly important to highlight approximate numerical information when children do not understand exact number words such as “eleven” and “twelve” yet. In the play sessions, parents and their preschool-aged children are provided three different sets of toys. None of these toys require conversations about math, but parents often use quantifiers when talking to their children while they play (e.g., “You have more slices of pizza than me.” while playing with the grocery store toy set). My project will examine whether parents’ use of mathematical language with their children before the pandemic differs from parents’ use of mathematical language near the end of the pandemic.

Overall, parents play a critical role in their children’s development. Before entering formal education, children are dependent on their parental figures for language input that is necessary for forming the math skills necessary for learning and their cognitive development. These early concepts can be predictive of math and literacy skills later in life. Students entering Kindergarten without the educational support of preschool or an at-home education may be left at a disadvantage. With the recent pandemic, education across age groups was put at a halt, with findings suggesting many children are still struggling to catch up. This project aims the further examine this, focusing on how preschool-aged children may have been impacted. It is possible the pandemic may have encouraged parents to play a more active role in their children’s education at home, meaning an increased frequency of quantifier use. Alternatively, parents’ quantifier use may have decreased and been unchanged, possibly because parents do not view themselves as responsible for teaching their child math or they focus on other aspects of their children’s development. 

I hope for my research to contribute to the growing literature around the importance of parental involvement in children’s mathematics and the greater implications the pandemic may have on the next generation’s cognitive development.  For parents, educators, and all related fields it is necessary we understand how our actions impact children’s development so we can better support them in the future. As a school counselor, research is an important tool to implement successful interventions geared towards students’ socioemotional and educational needs. Understanding how the pandemic may have impacted these next generations will be necessary for me to better understand and support them through their adolescence.