Early Math Development

Explores the history and theories of intelligence, from genetic and environmental influences and twin studies to Gardner's nine intelligences, highlighting linguistic-verbal, logical-mathematical, musical, visual-spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, intrapersonal, interpersonal, naturalistic, existential.

Explore numerical intelligence as mathematical ability and the four stages of mathematical development—innate abilities, specific math prerequisites, counting, and formal knowledge—starting around six years of age.

Explore innate mathematical abilities in infants, including subsidising, numerical expectations, and the A and S, with studies showing 2–3 dot discrimination and recognition of correct results for simple operations.

Explore how children develop specific math prerequisites through lexical, syntactic, and semantic knowledge of numbers, from vocabulary and grammar to quantity meaning and abstract concepts.

Identify the stage of counting, per Brian Butterworth, and the five counting principles—stable order, one-to-one, cardinality, abstraction, and order irrelevance—that connect innate abilities to formal math knowledge.

Identify how the stage of formal mathematical knowledge signals readiness for learning and how early counting predicts later math success. Emphasize math prerequisites and early preparation to support future competence.

Examine general prerequisites for early math, emphasizing memory processing and working memory per Baddeley’s model, including central executive, phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and episodic buffer, and links to long-term memory.

Explore how math skills relate to working memory, emphasizing central executive and visual-spatial sketchpad as core helpers, with phonological loop shown as less relevant.

Activate early math development by leveraging brain plasticity and the zone of proximal development to strengthen math neural networks through guided, scaffolded instruction.

Develop early number sense by building number sounds through counting, recognizing quantities up to ten, linking symbols to values, and developing addition and subtraction reasoning through play.

Explore how math skills develop based on concepts covered in this early math development course, and share your feedback by leaving a comment.