The truth behind the importance of math mastery at a young age

Children at an early age utilize mathematics in their everyday life. They compare quantities, find patterns, and share an equal amount of cookies with a friend. Math helps children make sense of their world, and once in school, it helps them with other subjects as well. Beginning to teach math concepts to children at an early age helps them develop critical thinking and reasoning skills. These skills are the foundation for success as they progress in school.

Children need to feel confident in their mathematical skills. This confidence will follow them throughout school and life. A major way to boost confidence in math is to learn naturally through play. As children play with blocks, many parents ask questions like; What can you do to make the block tower taller? How many blocks do you need to show your age? Children are also often fascinated by variations in size. They get excited about the enormity of a skyscraper and the tininess of a ladybug. They naturally look at the size of the amount of ice cream in their bowl and compare it to their friend’s bowl. Their curiosity with comparisons fosters a curiosity with units of measurement. 

The abacus is a tactile tool that shows children how to visualize problems. For younger kids it can easily feel like a game. Slide the beads up and down and watch large numbers appear! This allows children to foster intuition and imagination. Intuition and imagination are vital for understanding literary analysis, learning new languages, mastering geometry, calculus, and much more. Abacus students develop and engage the right side of the brain so that their left side of the brain is much more open to taking in new ideas, retaining short term memory, and collaborating with the right side to solve logic problems found inside and outside of the classroom.

You can supplement skills from the Abacus into your child’s everyday activities. While at dinner you can ask your child to compare items on each person’s plate. Ask, “Do we each have the same number of green beans on our plates? How many more green beans do I have than you have? Are there more strawberries on your plate or in the bowl?”

You can also give children problems to solve that mimic Abacus work. Explain that we have 7 people in our family, but I only have 4 spoons, how many more do I need so that everyone in the family gets a spoon? From there, you can give different word problems. For example, I have 4 spoons on the table, 7 people in the family, but your brother will not be here for dinner, so how many spoons do I need for dinner? These basic math problems can be changed and made more challenging depending on the age of your child. 

As a parent, one of your most important roles when teaching your child math skills is to help build their self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is the belief in an individual’s ability to succeed at a task. When children are positive about learning and feel that they can succeed, they are more likely to be successful in everything they do. 

References:

Clements, D. H., & Sarama, J. (2021). Learning and teaching early math: the learning trajectories approach. Routledge. 

Grossman, P. D., & Colburn, J. C. (2012). Capillary Electrophoresis Theory and Practice. Elsevier Science. 

Stipek, D., Schoenfeld, A., & Gomby, D. (2012). Math matters: Even for little kids. Education Week.