Quantitative Development in Infancy and Early Childhood

Abstract
This book takes a critical look at the evidence concerning nonverbal quantification in infants and young children. For the first time since research on this topic exploded in the 1980s, the entire literature covering birth to school age is considered together. Instead of finding support for the claim that number concepts are inborn, the authors conclude that quantification originates in an approximate sense of overall amount. From this perspective, several new questions arise. How does the concept of discrete number diverge from this amount-based beginning? How well do different models of nonverbal numerical representation fit the data when the entire period from birth to school age is included? If infants represent quantities in terms of amount, are these representations absolute or relative? In addition to addressing these questions, the authors consider how early quantitative concepts fit into the broader context of cognitive development. They also discuss how conventional mathematics builds on preschool quantification and how quantitative development relates to categorization, language, and spatial reasoning. The resulting overview highlights not only the impressive quantitative accomplishments of early childhood, but also the intricate conceptual relations that must be worked out to produce them.

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