Children's Abilities to Count and Make Quantitative Comparisons

• In Event: Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: STEM Learning and Instruction in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

This study aims to investigate children’s abilities to count and make quantitative comparisons. Thirty-four preschoolers, mean age 4.5 years old, participated in the study. According to the results, 89% of the children (n = 30) were able to do rote counting and 70% (n = 24) were able to do rational counting. When children were asked how they knew how many objects were in a set, 30 responded that they used a counting strategy. Sixty-five percent of children (n = 22) answered “zero” when no block was given and 21 children answered “nothing” when they were asked what zero meant to them. About quantitative comparisons, 65% of children answered correctly when they were asked more and less questions.

Authors

• Joohi Lee, The University of Texas - Arlington

• Sham`ah Md-Yunus, Eastern Illinois University