Typically, most of preschool teachers leave math teaching for grade school. They are under the assumption that 4 to 5 year olds cannot understand what numbers from 1 to 10 stand for, as declared by Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget in the last century. However, decades of intensive brain research have shown that it is a bad idea to postpone arithmetic learning. In fact, preschool children are already able to grasp elementary addition even if they are still unable to write the corresponding equations.
There is another excellent reason to teach numbers to young children: they’ll improve not only in math but also in reading. According to a groundbreaking 2007 study conducted by professor Greg Duncan at the University of California in Irvin, the math skills of children in kindergarten predict not only their math scores but also their reading scores in third grade. Such results highlight how much an early start in mathematics is important for a student’s academic success.
Picture: Arcanys Early Learning Foundation
