Humans count to indefinitely large numbers by recycling words from a finite list, and combining them using rules--for example, combining sixty with unit labels to generate sixty-one, sixty-two, and so on. Past experimental research has focused on children learning base-10 systems, and has reported that this rule learning process is highly…

When children first learn to count, what do they understand about the structure of the count system? The present study investigated English-speaking children's ability to generalize the rules that structure their count list to novel contexts. A total of N = 86 children (3;0-6;11) completed a battery of tasks aimed at measuring their understanding…

The Give-N (give-a-number) task has become a popular assessment of children's number words and counting knowledge since Wynn's (1990, 1992) seminal work over 30 years ago. Using the Give-N task, numerous studies have shown that children learn the first few number words slowly, before they understand how counting represents number. This learning…

As adults, we represent and think about number, space, and time in at least two ways: our intuitive--but imprecise--perceptual representations, and the slowly learned--but precise--number words. With development, these representational formats interface, allowing us to use precise number words to estimate imprecise perceptual experiences. We test…

Impaired numerosity perception in developmental dyscalculia (low "number acuity") has been interpreted as evidence of reduced representational precision in the neurocognitive system supporting non-symbolic number sense. However, recent studies suggest that poor numerosity judgments might stem from stronger interference from non-numerical…

The development of young children's counting has been extensively researched, yet detailed studies that examine development over multiple years are curiously absent from the literature. This research examined 15 preschoolers' (ages 3-4) use of number words as they engaged in two counting tasks, an oral counting task and counting a collection of 31…

In the literature on numerical cognition, the presence of the capacity to distinguish between numerosities by attending to the number of items, rather than continuous properties of stimuli that correlate with it, is commonly taken as sufficient indication of numerical abilities in cognitive agents. However, this literature does not take into…

Mastery of the cardinality principle (CP) is foundational for children's mathematical development. Children's age and subitizing and counting skills contribute to their CP acquisition. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of different types of instruction for supporting 3-4-year-olds' CP development and its interplay with child…

The same and different routine offers an opportunity to build a strong foundation for future grades while also deepening the experiences of prekindergarten and transitional kindergarten students. Students have opportunities to make sense, share ideas, and engage in the ideas of others. We conjecture this type of experience supports students and…

Background: Despite its potentially significant functional and emotional impact, acalculia is still too rarely assessed and managed by speech and language therapists. Research on the rehabilitation of numerical transcoding remains scarce in the literature and, despite positive results, presents a low level of evidence. Aims: The present study aims…

Children learn the cardinalities of the first numbers one, two, three and four before they learn how counting tracks cardinality for all numbers. It may be that when children start to understand counting, they also discover how numbers relate to one another in a structured number system. Do children who understand that the cardinality of a set is…

One model of numeric perception is a density-area mechanism: a process that estimates both density and area of an array, then multiplies them to create an estimate of number. One line of evidence that supports this is the surprising numeric Ebbinghaus illusion: smaller context circles lead to greater perceived number than larger context circles,…

Symbolic numeracy first emerges as children learn the meanings of number words and how to use them to precisely count sets of objects. This development starts before children enter school and forms a foundation for lifelong mathematics achievement. Despite its importance, exactly how children acquire this basic knowledge is unclear. Here we test…

Number-recognition tasks, such as the how-many task, involve set-to-word mapping, and number-creation tasks, such as the give-n task, entail word-to-set mapping. The present study involved comparing sixty 3-year-olds' performance on the two tasks with collections of one to three items over three time points about 3 weeks apart. Inconsistent with…

Preschool students' mastery of early numeracy skills is important, so they enter kindergarten with the necessary prerequisite skills, which are predictive of achievement in later elementary grades. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a concrete-representational-abstract (CRA) instructional package on the foundational early…