Adults’ awareness of numerical ideas raised by young children

ABSTRACT

Taking into consideration that young children engage with mathematics outside of the preschool classroom, this study focuses on adults’ awareness of numerical ideas raised by young children without and with adult involvement. Ninety adults in Israel, the majority of whom were parents or grandparents of children aged 3–6 years, participated in this study. None were preschool teachers. Findings indicated that adults who participated in this study showed an awareness of concepts and skills that can be promoted at an early age, mostly of counting (verbal and object counting). Less mentioned by adults were activities related to number composition and decomposition. Building on this awareness, educators can seek to enhance adults’ mathematics knowledge of ways to engage young children with numerical activities.

KEYWORDS:

• Adults
• early childhood numeracy
• awareness

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Israel Science Foundation [grant number 1631/18].