How pre-schoolers understand the number zero
Laura Bassi, Giulia Vigna, Silvia Benavides-Varela
Many studies have analysed the mechanisms that lead children to learn positive integers. However, only a few studies have focused on understanding how children get to learn the number zero. This study aims to analyse to what extent 4-year-old children understand the number zero. For this purpose, we carried out this pilot study with 20 children. Participants completed the following tasks with and without zero: (1) naming numbers and counting; (2) Give-N task; (3) representation of numbers on fingers; (4) non-symbolic comparison of quantity. In addition, participants’ language abilities were assessed using (5) the standardised TNL test. The results showed that children who know that «zero» means «nothing» get higher scores in the tasks regarding language, naming numbers, and representation of numbers on fingers. However, we did not find such differences between children who have or have not acquired the cardinality principle. Therefore, these results suggest that zero and the other numbers are learnt in different ways. In addition, all children understand what «nothing» means but only a few of them understand the word «zero». This suggests that children at 4 years of age might have difficulties in understanding the lexical but not the semantic meaning of zero.
Keywords
Zero, Empty sets, Numerical cognition, Childhood, Numerical skills precursors.
