Numeracy

Topic Editor: Jeff Bisanz, PhD, University of Alberta, Canada  

Numeracy is sometimes defined as understanding how numbers represent specific magnitudes.  This understanding is reflected in a variety of skills and knowledge  (ex. counting, distinguishing between sets of unequal quantities, operations such as addition and subtraction), and so numeracy often is used to refer to a wide range of number-related concepts and skills. These abilities often emerge in some form well before school entry. The idea of exposing young children to Early Childhood Mathematical Education (ECME) has been around for more than a century, but current discussions revolve around the goals of early training in numeracy and the methods by which these goals should be achieved. Early mathematical learning can and should be integrated in children’s everyday activities through encounters with patterns, quantity, and space. Giving children ample and developmentally appropriate opportunities to practice their skills in mathematics, can strengthen the link between children’s early abilities in mathematics and the acquisition of mathematical knowledge in school. Unfortunately, children do not all have an equal chance to exercise these skills, hence the importance of ECME. Research on numeracy and early mathematical skills is important to formulate the program and objectives of ECME.

Difficulties in mathematics are relatively common among school-age children. Approximately 1 in 10 children will be diagnosed with a learning disorder related to mathematics during their education. One of the most severe forms is developmental dyscalculia, which refers to an inability to count and tally collections of items and to distinguish numbers from one another.

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• What do we know?
• What can be done?
• According to experts
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