– According to a new study published in “Child Development”, children’s understanding of number value begins by age 3, much earlier than previously assumed. The discovery at home and in preschool of such basic math concepts may help children to be better prepared for kindergarten, a decisive advantage for their whole school trajectory.
– “Contrary to the view that young children do not understand place value and multidigit numbers, we found that they actually know quite a lot about it,” said Kelly S. Mix, a Michigan State University professor of educational psychology and a co-author on the study. Interestingly, Mix and colleagues found that it was easier for young children to identify the larger of two three-digit numbers (like 453 vs. 634) than the larger of two arrays of dots or blocks.
Picture: Arcanys Early Learning Foundation
