Elementary school has changed in lots of ways. Today, students are often exposed to concepts far earlier than their parents were. Students are also expected to meet elevated standards of achievement. One of the areas with increased focus is math.

Preschoolers naturally explore and express math concepts at a young age. Math skills involve more than addition, subtraction and multiplication tables. Tasks like measuring to help with cooking, counting how many pieces of fruit are on a plate, sharing toys or food, and developing spatial relations with balancing blocks are foundational learning for math rather than just play.

Math in Early Learning
One interesting finding about childhood learning is that math concepts are intertwined with language and reading. Language is the starting point for how children understand numbers. Similarly, children build on their verbal and social skills when they use their math skills in problem solving. Using math to solve problems teaches them to think and communicate using logical reasoning.

Engaging children in “number talk” increases their ability to comprehend important math concepts. Number talk includes activities like counting out loud (“one, two, three, four,” when playing hide and seek), counting tangible objects like Cheerios (“one, two, three, four Cheerios”), and labeling the number of items in a set (“there are four Cheerios”). One important milestone is a child’s grasp of the cardinal rule principle. The cardinal rule principle is the concept that when counting items in a group, the last number counted represents how many items are in that group. For example, count all the snacks on a child’s plate out loud with him (you’re using “number talk” here) and help them to understand that the final snack represents the total number of snacks (“One, two, three, four, FIVE! There are five snacks on your plate!”).

Daily Experiences Shape Learning
The foundation for learning math begins at an early age and should be accessible to young children through daily experiences and play. Children acquire math skills by actively engaging their minds in various ways. Everyday experiences and play help to improve children’s abilities to think about connections, similarities and differences in everyday objects. Identifying objects like toys as bigger or smaller or describing the pace of objects as faster or slower helps children begin to understand how to estimate and measure. Repetitive patterns in music are also great for improving early learning math skills. Sing songs or listen to lullabies to help children understand pattern relationships.  Through these simple day-to-day experiences and play, children establish a strong math foundation. This foundation is key to building advanced math skills.

Many children will have a good grasp of key math concepts, like recognizing numerals, identifying similar objects and comparing different objects and can perform basic math operations like sorting and counting between ages two and three. Learning these skills also supports development in non-math skills such as reading, memory and motor skills.

Whatever a child’s ability or learning level, educators agree it’s crucial that math exploration happens at school and at home. Parents can support a child’s natural interest in math early on with play. Early-developed math skills can improve a child’s problem solving ability later in life. Involved parents can help monitor their child’s progress in understanding and mastering early math concepts. For some ideas on how to bring math into daily interactions with children, check out this website.