Early Childhood Corner: Achieving Numerical Understanding for All Young Children

Abstract

Young children aged 3 to 7 can learn a great deal about numbers. In a home or daycare environment, this learning can occur as children experience daily routines. Young children will learn to count, match, see, and compare numbers if caregivers or older children count, show objects, and point out small numbers of things. Such informal teaching can be done while children play, eat, get dressed, go up and down stairs, jump, and otherwise move through the day. These activities are engaging and fun but need to be encouraged and modeled by adults or more advanced children in the group. In larger day-care or school settings, numerical understanding results from similar informal learning opportunities combined with more structured experiences that enable all children to engage in supported learning activities with adult and peer modeling and help.