An Overview of Changes in Children’s Number Word Concepts From Age 2 Through 8

Abstract

Young children’s early experiences with number words occur in many different specific situations. These situations fall into seven mathematically different kinds of situations: cardinal, measure, ordinal, counting, sequence, symbolic (numeral), and nonnumerical situations. These uses are described in chapter 1. In English the same number words are used for six of these kinds of situations. For ordinal situations, special ordinal modifications of these number words are used; most of these ordinal number words sound quite similar to the standard numbers words (having th on the end). Because the words are identical for most situations, and similar even in ordinal situations, it is fairly easy to relate uses of the same number word across these mathematically different situations. However, very young children show little understanding of any such relationships. Their initial uses of number words are confined to use within a given kind of situation. A major aspect of the learning that occurs throughout the period from age 2 through 8 concerns the increasingly complex relationships between different kinds of situations.