Nursery/Reception Number Recognition

[ihearttc]

Posting here for more traffic although its not strictly Primary Education as he is still in nursery.

DS2 is in a nursery attached to an Infant School. He is a November birthday so one of the older ones and will start reception this september. We are having a major battle getting him to recognise numbers. He can reliably do 0, 1 and 4 but apart from that its just not going in. He can count reasonably well to 20 (with a slight hiccup at 13!) and can count objects if that makes sense so could give you 2 cars or 5 cows etc and we are working on 1 more and 1 less but visually he cannot almost recognise the shapes of the numbers.

DS1 was reading before he started school and he is now 11 so I almost can't remember what he was doing number wise. I wondered if it was unusual to not be able to recognise numbers because school have basically said he is quite far behind and he needs to know them before starting school. We practice everyday but he still can't get it. I wondered if there was a problem with his sight but he can recognise some letters so don't think its that.

Any suggestions? Like I said its been a while since DS1 was in Reception so no idea what their goals are?

Private or state? They seem to have very high expectations. He's not even slightly behind, let alone very behind. The ELG for the end of reception is to count and order numbers to 20. He has over a year before he needs to get to that point.

In terms of where number recognition is mentioned in development matters:
30-50months - sometimes match numeral to correct quantity
40-60+ months - match numerals to the correct quantity, first from 1-5, then from 6-10.

I'd argue he can probably already do the first, which is age appropriate and what would be expected at the end of nursery. The 40-60months is usually what makes up the curriculum for the first part of the reception year, so you wouldn't normally expect children to be able to do it on entry.

My DD is also going to school in Sept - she's a February babe.

I literally couldn't get her to count to 5 until a few weeks ago. It was driving me insane - she'd go 1,2,3,6,8...! Then suddenly she could. And a couple of weeks after that she started showing an interest in 'reading' them. She's doing 1-5 reliably now but like I say, it's only been very recently. She knows about half of the letters in the alphabet but that can all be a bit hit and miss too.

This probably isn't going to sound great but I think what has helped her has been letting her play with my phone...she likes to put the passcode in to unlock it - so she learned 4 numbers like that. Then I changed the passcode ;-)

Rafa its just a normal state school nursery.

I think (although I could be wrong) that it was the fact that he seems to be aware of numbers/counting etc yet cannot seem to recognise them written down which is causing them concern. I have to be completely honest and say that until recently we haven't been practicing that much because it never crossed my mind that he needed to know them. To put it into context a bit...he started last January (2014) when he was just 3 with a speech delay. At that point he wasn't even putting 2 words together. The progress he has made in his speech is amazing...he is very vocal and doesn't stop talking from the second he opens his eyes in the morning and he is very articulate. So we concentrated on him actually talking rather than learning stuff if that makes sense?

He can write the first few letters of his name and will give the rest a good go. He can also do some of the first few JP's as well it just seems to be numbers which is a sticking point.

Will keep doing what we have been doing :-)

storm I did actually think of doing that the other day but was worried he'd permanently lock my phone lol!

Honestly I think he's fine. At this stage I'd put it down to his age and his interests rather than being a sign of anything untoward.

By all means keep practicing but don't worry too much, or put too much pressure on him. You don't want to end up putting him off because he's not quite ready and the nursery have slightly unreasonable expectations.

Thats really helpful thank you.

Will keep actively encouraging and playing with numbers etc but won't worry too much.

It's easier if you ask him to "show me 3"/"show me 5" as that means he's thinking about the written number rather than trying to also remember what it's called. I teach p1 & with children who are struggling I would write their focus numbers e.g. 2,3,4 on paving slabs and play games using the numbers. Jump onto 3 -hop onto 4-slide to 2-touch 3 with your ear etc. It's very early days yet for him. Make it fun and keep the sessions very short.

He's doing fine for a child in nursery.

Thanks both of you...really good to know. I wasn't worried about at all because he has come so so far in his development over the last 18 months but obviously when they tell you something you start to worry.

He can actually do that turd if I ask him for a 1 or 3 or 4 etc he can show me but when they ask him what a number is he can't "name" it for want of a better description. So me doing it that way round is actually helping him then?

My DDs went to a Montessory nursery and I really believe that the way Montessory approaches early math works. Maintain is to make it visual and practical.

For example, with number recognition they have two types of activities - one where the number is fixed and you move quantities, and vice versa.

To make it simple - and what I did with DDs when they were that age -

1. Take five paper cups (or some other small container) and write 1-5 on the cups with a marker. Then take some sticks, or drinking straws and play the game of - "Let's put the correct number of straws (sweets, etc) into a cup.

(I used to play it with Dd at cafes - took free plastic water cups, drew numbers on them, and gave her sugar packets. It was a great trick and gave me time for coffee in peace...)

1. (you'll need wooden, or plastic, or cardboard numbers that the child can touch and feel)

Lay out quantities in small piles, clearly visible - one button (or whatever, main thing that it's the same material), then two buttons, three, etc. Or take a paper and draw five ladybugs with 1-5 spots on them, arranged in a line. The game here is "Let's match these numbers to correct ladybugs"

It is helpful, if numbers are of good size that the child can really look at them and touch/trace them with a finger.

By practicing 1 and 2 he'll learn to associate the quantity (real objects) with numbers (abstract concept).

When little ones have problems with Math it is often because it becomes abstract too quickly.

Good luck!