Author: Carole Hall

— Subitising, Welcome —

Visual Cluster Cards, Subitising and Icon Cards – Same or Different?

April 8, 2021

I was recently introduced to Professor Hamesh Sharma by Judy Hornigold and to Chris Woodin  through my own research. I have always been an advocate for the importance of subitising as a foundation for number sense and mathematical thinking. Are Sharma’s visual clustering and Woodin’s icon cards related to subitising, or not! That’s what I… Read More Visual Cluster Cards, Subitising and Icon Cards – Same or Different?

— Conceptual Subitising —

Linking Conceptual Subitising to Mental Computation

February 23, 2019

  When children are first shown two groups to combine they often ‘count all.’ If they are not presented with suitable activities ‘counting all’ might become the default strategy for later computational tasks. Being able to subitise supports later mathematical abilities. It is important that children are supported in developing their ability to subitise as… Read More Linking Conceptual Subitising to Mental Computation

— Conceptual Subitising, Subitising —

Subitising – Moving from Perceptual to Conceptual

November 9, 2018

Conceptual subitising is the ability to recognise a whole quantity as the result of recognising smaller quantities. Sayers and others (2016) suggest that conceptual subitising may lead to the later development of arithmetic as it leads to decomposition or partitioning of numbers, the commutativity of addition, and part-whole knowledge. Sayers article is below and is an interesting… Read More Subitising – Moving from Perceptual to Conceptual

— Subitising —

Subitising

September 2, 2018

Subitising refers to being instantly and automatically able to recognise small numerosities without having to count (Clements, 1999; Jung et al., 2013; Moeller et al., 2009; Clements & Sarama, 2009).   ‘Some suggest that subitising may well be the developmental prerequisite skill necessary to learn counting. If so, we should examine subitising more closely and… Read More Subitising

— Number Recognition —

Number Recognition

August 12, 2018

   Numeral Recognition involves a variety of skills including: Numeral identification (recognising all 10 numerals from 0 through 9) Knowing each numeral’s name Tagging a numeral to a quantity Correctly writing the numerals Numeral Identification At its most basic level, numeral identification is a form of shape recognition, which can result in a simple association… Read More Number Recognition

— Abstraction Principle, Counting —

Abstraction Principle – Everything and Anything Can be Counted

July 26, 2018

The abstraction principle is the last of Gelman and Gallistel’s Five Counting Principles. The one-to-one correspondence, stable-order, cardinal, and order-irrelevance principles have been addressed in previous posts. It is vital that children learn the other principles first, because as they get older, the abstract principle will be easier to understand. The abstraction principle states that… Read More Abstraction Principle – Everything and Anything Can be Counted

— Counting, Number Sense, Order Irrelevance Principle —

Order-Irrelevance Principle – The Order of the Count Doesn’t Matter

July 22, 2018

The order-irrelevance principle refers to the understanding that the order in which objects are counted is not important. It doesn’t matter whether the counting procedure is carried out from left to right, from right to left or from somewhere else, so long as every item in the collection is counted once and only once.  For example:… Read More Order-Irrelevance Principle – The Order of the Count Doesn’t Matter

— Cardinality, Counting, Number Sense —

Cardinality – Giving Meaning to Numbers

July 11, 2018

Cardinality is the ability to understand that the last number which was counted when counting a set of objects is a direct representation of the total in that group. Children will first learn to count by matching number words with objects   (1-to-1 correspondence) before they understand that the last number stated in a count indicates… Read More Cardinality – Giving Meaning to Numbers

— Number Sense, Stable Number Word Order —

Stable-Order-Principle -Saying the Number Names in the Same Order Every Time

July 6, 2018

The stable-order-principle is one of the most basic principles of number and parents often think that this is the only concept a child needs to know.    It is the simple concept that the sequence for how we count always stays the same.    For example, it is always 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,… Read More Stable-Order-Principle -Saying the Number Names in the Same Order Every Time

— Counting, Number Sense, One-to-One Correspondence —

One-to-One Correspondence – A Counting Fundamental

June 9, 2018

  Children come to school with varied experiences related to counting. Even if young children can recite the number sequence it cannot be assumed that they can apply this knowledge to counting small sets of objects. Knowing the one-to-one correspondence principle is essential for organised, meaningful counting. This leads to an eventual ability to perform higher-level calculations… Read More One-to-One Correspondence – A Counting Fundamental