A tool to investigate the development of numerical cognition during infancy
Maria Beatrice Ciotti
Recent research trends attribute a natural competence with numbers to children. Innate sets such as ANS and OTS allow numbers to be processed and manipulated since the very first days of life. These systems combine with other emerging abilities that children have during their development. Specifically, mathematical skills seem to be in close relationship both with the language skills that children already possess and with their environment. During infancy, children take their first steps towards the numerical world as soon as they start using numerical language or the quantification aspect, and with their first number-words. In light of these findings from existing literature, it is important to understand how numerical cognition develops and which cognitive domains are involved in the 18-36 months age range. The aim of this study is to explore numerical cognition during infancy using a tool, administrated to 30 children, to find any possible relations between number cognition, emergent skills and environmental factors.
Keywords
Early numerical skills, Infancy, Counting, Language, Environment.
