Perceptual numbers
Hetal Tarpada
Early childhood education should be both enjoyable and effective. To support young learners, educators must incorporate various elements into their pedagogy, such as pre-number concepts, one-to-one correspondence, number introduction and representation, bundling, the concept of zero, basic operations, shapes and patterns, and part-to-whole relationships.
Among these, the concept of “perceptual numbers” is particularly significant. Shri P K Srinivasan always highlighted their importance in developing math concepts. This term refers to a child’s ability to recognize and understand small numerical quantities just by “perceiving” them. This skill is known as subitizing.
It is the skill I instinctively use to make out from a distance that “three” of my friends are talking at the school gate, without having to actually count them.
In many ways, subitizing is the foundation on which “number sense” can be built. Number sense is one of the most critical skills needed for understanding mathematics.
Here is an activity for checking the level of “subitizing skill” of children who have just started school.
Activity
Prepare several charts (same size) with smaller numbers (1 to 6) represented as dots that are big enough for children to see from a distance.
Pick up two charts which have different numbers, say 3 and 5. Keep them side by side on the board and cover them up with a big sheet.
Ask the children to focus on the board, then remove the sheet for about three seconds before covering the numbers again.
In the initial stages, ask the children which chart had more dots. To avoid any language related confusion (chart on the left/ right?), the teacher can indicate the location of each chart with her hands.
At the later stages, ask the children how many dots a particular chart had.
This exercise should be repeated several times with different size dots, different patterns, etc.
For children who have difficulty in identifying, the amount of time the patterns are revealed can be increased slightly.
Note any child who had consistent difficulty in comparing the quantities or in naming the number. These children could have difficulty with subitizing and may need more practice with subitizing in particular and pre-number activities in general.
The author is a pre-school teacher at Reliance Foundation School, Jamnagar.
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