Early Developments in Children's Use of Counting to Solve Quantitative Problems

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Abstract
Two studies evaluated preschool children's use of counting to solve different kinds of quantitative problems. Three uses of counting were considered: (a) counting to quantify a single set, (b) counting to compare two sets, and (c) counting to generate a set of a specified numerosity. In Experiment 1, 3- and 3 1/2 year-olds tended not to count spontaneously when asked to compare two sets, even when they were able to count fairly well. In Experiment 2, 3 1/2 year-olds again tended not to count spontaneously on compare-sets and generate-set problems, although they did count readily on quantify-set problems; and the use of counting on the compare-sets and generate-set problems increased markedly between 3 1/2 and 4 1/2 years. These early developments may be important educationally because counting plays a major role in arithmetic learning.