Week Eight Readings

Week Eight’s Theme

How do very young children's semantic practices support their search for and attempts to make-meaning of the world around them through storytelling, exploration and experimentation?

This week’s theme is the same as last week’s, with the emphasis placed on children as a text participant. During the week, however, I analysed my ability to observe and offer literacy and numeracy experiences to children younger than four years of age and concluded that I needed to study more readings related to literacy and numeracy capabilities and experiences in these young children as necessary for my own development and understanding. Therefore, the readings for this week more so follow this emphasis rather than children as text participants.

Reading One

(Actually consists of the use of three texts)

Bermejo, V. (1996). Cardinality Development and Counting. Developmental Psychology, 32(2), p 263-268.

Stock, P, Desoete, A & Roeyers, H. (2009). Mastery of the Counting Principles in Toddlers: A Crucial step in the Development of Budding Arithmetic Abilities?. Learning and Individual Differences, 19, p 419-422.

Thompson, I. (2011). The Principal Counting Principles. Early Years Magazine, issue 7.

When searching for a suitable numeracy reading this week I came across the following quote by Bermejo, V (1996):

“Counting is a complex ability that requires the integration of some principles to be performed correctly. In fact, children need 2 years or more to count correctly and probably even more time to use counting efficiently (see Bermejo & Lago, 1994).” 

This quote was very important for me in understanding the development in children as babies and toddlers. As a pre-service teacher placed in a kindergarten, and an Out of School Hours Care educator, I am used to working with children who have basic counting knowledge. Understanding that this knowledge is part of a two or more year process of development was an eye-opener of sorts for me this week. 

My principal reading this week by Stock, Desoete & Roeyers, mentioned Gelman and Gallistel’s principles of counting, however, did not give a detailed or easily understandable analysis of these principles. Thompson gave a more accessible of the five counting principles. These principles are:

The one-one principle

This principle involves assigning one distinct counting word to one distinct item.

The stable-order principle

This principle involves using a repeated and stable list (at least as long as the number of countable items). This can include using a stable and repeated list that is not in the conventional sequence of numbers, such as 5, 6, 7, 8.

The cardinal principle

This principle involves the child knowing that the final number used in relation to the final object counted represents the number of items in total.

The abstraction principle

This principle states that tangible and intangible objects are able to be counted, that anything at all can be counted.

The order-irrelevance principle

This principle states that the order in which things are counted is irrelevant to the counting process.

The Stock, Desoete & Roeyers article outlines a study conducted to assess children’s mastery of the first three principles by the end of kindergarten and how this level of mastery related to arithmetic tests in the first year of school. 

Stock et al., described the last two principles as ‘unessential counting abilities’ (2009, p. 419), arguing that violation of either of these principles does not lead to incorrect counting. While I agree with this, I do not believe these two principles are ‘unessential’. Without the mastery of both of these two principles, children will not understand the basics of mathematics and numeracy. The ability to understand that counting, mathematics, and numeracy does not need to apply to tangible materials is essential to more complex learning faced in later school years. The ability to recognise that the same five objects are five objects no matter which way those objects are counted is also essential to further learning. 

Stock et al’s., first hypothesis was that most children mastered the first three counting principles by the end of kindergarten. This hypothesis was unconfirmed with only 44.2% of children mastering all three before entering schools. Before completing the article my guess was that one-one correspondence would be the most easily mastered principle, and this guess was confirmed with 95.3% of children mastering this principle before leaving kindergarten. Next, was the cardinality principle with 65.7%, and last was the stable-order principle with 62.4%, which was not against my initial predictions. 

The second hypothesis was that the better the mastery of the three principles, the better children would perform in first grade arithmetic tests, and this hypothesis was confirmed. 

The five counting principles, as well as an approximation of the age which they are mastered has furthered my understanding of counting, and early numeracy capabilities in children. The idea that learning to count properly takes at least two years, and the idea of five principles of counting made me realise how complicated counting really is, and why it is only just starting to be mastered properly at kindergarten and early primary school age levels. 

In keeping with this week’s theme, engaging with numbers, counting, and the counting principles allows children to be text participants, as counting is a skill children need to actively engage with to learn. Children need to be able to read, say, identify, make meaning and decipher distinct objects, items, numbers, ideas, and names in order to count properly, all of which involves them engaging with and participating in the learning process. 

Reading Two

Soundy, C. S. (1997). Nurturing Literacy with Infants and Toddlers in Group Settings. Childhood Education, 73(3), p 149.

This article argued the necessity for good literacy, specifically reading, experiences in childcare settings for toddlers and infants. Soundy argues that the growing amount of children spending time in, and the increasing amount of time spent in childcare settings means centres need to improve on their literacy experiences and opportunities for children. Soundy attempts to apply research based in home settings to centres, and offers suggestions for creating literacy experiences and opportunities in centre-based care. 

The article was organised under five headings after the introduction, Envisioning the Future, Guidelines for Caregivers, Physical Environment, Helping Caregivers Select Books, and Conclusions. I particularly liked the sections Guidelines for Caregivers and Helping Caregivers Select Books. 

In the Guidelines for Caregivers emphasis was placed on developing strong, positive feelings in children about books and reading. One of the most significant quotes I picked up from this reading was in this section:

Classroom story time sessions should be short, one-on-one experiences. Ideally, each adult would be responsible primarily for the care and guidance of only three, or at most four, infants. Rather than following an arbitrary schedule, caregivers should take advantage of the children’s natural, and different, sleeping and eating rhythms in order to infuse literacy experiences.

Particularly the point about not sticking to a schedule with infants and toddlers resonated with me as an important factor in letting children develop, grow, and learn at their own pace and with their own learning style.

The Helping Caregivers Select Books section has useful ideas to contemplate when choosing books for children, particularly young children. The ease of using board books, as well as cloth and vinyl books, instead of paper books is discussed, as well as the benefits of toy and interactive books.  

Again, keeping with this week’s theme, Soundy placed emphasis on allowing children to participate in the reading experience from a very young age. This participation included communicating, touching, questioning, suggesting, moving, listening, looking, and even chewing. 

This article gave me a broader understanding of what basic reading opportunities and experiences can be, or should be, offered in centres for toddlers and infants. It supported an argument found in week five by Mem Fox about the importance of reading to young children in order to develop their literacy capabilities.