Les premieres acquistions de la notion de nombre par l'enfant

Abstract

This paper describes the observation and analysis of clinical interviews with children who had just entered Cours Preparatoire (which is the first year of compulsory education in France: six-year old).

The main object of these interviews was to gain information about the first acquisition of the idea of number by children before entering compulsory education, particularly on the following points:

• · numerical range in which the child knows the comptine numerique (i.e. chanting or reciting of sequences of numbers such as “one two three four five six seven” for example);

• · different uses of this comptine when the child has to solve problems (numbering a given collection, or finding the cardinal number of a given set when an element is added or taken away, or determining the numerical relation which exists between two given collections, or transformating this relation...).

In addition, our study shows how some number properties which apparently are obvious (for teachers), in fact pose very important questions about the acquisition of number concepts by children.