How Soon Should Children Learn Numbers & Math?

My New Life

Kate Garlinge

Kids & Family, Parenting

4.7 • 654 Ratings

🗓️ 6 April 2020

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We all know how important it is to read to our children, but trying to build a baby’s math skills can feel like a challenging task, especially if we don’t have a positive association with math ourselves.

The good news is, baby is encountering math everywhere, and nurturing a love of numbers is not as hard as commonly thought. After all, we are all born loving numbers!

In this episode, Jessica Rolph speaks with Gillian Starkey, a professor in neuroscience with an emphasis on children’s developing math skills. She shares some pointers that are going to score big with you and your baby, and might even make math into something you both look forward to.

Key Takeaways:

[1:22] What constitutes math for babies?

[2:45] Gillian shares why it is important to build basic math skills at home with our babies.

[3:51] What do babies know about math when they are born?

[4:49] Activities that you can do with your baby (0-12 months old) to build math skills.

[8:00] How do children’s understanding of numbers and what they represent evolve as they get older?

[9:01] Gillian explains how to engage toddlers in everyday math.

[10:03] Baking is one great way to introduce mathematical concepts to toddlers.

[10:33] Shapes and patterns can be used to strengthen math skills.

[11:40] Gillian gives tips on how to deal with our own math anxiety.

Mentioned in this episode:

Brought to you by Lovevery.com

Learn more about Gillian Starkey

Transcript

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0:00.0	Parenthood is a time of so much change for you and your baby.
0:12.8	A little reliable information can go a long way towards making this new life a good life.
0:18.6	I'm Jessica Rolfe, and this is my new life, a love every podcast.
0:29.0	From the vanishing food on her plate to the busy fingers on her hand, your baby is encountering
0:34.5	math everywhere. And while we all know how important it is to read to our kids,
0:39.7	building baby's math skills can seem daunting. After all, not all of us have fond associations with
0:45.4	math. I'm raising my hand here. But nurturing a love of numbers is not as hard as you think.
0:52.1	Notice, I said nurturing, not instilling, because we're all born, loving numbers.
0:57.9	Today's guest on the podcast has some pointers that are going to score big with you and your baby.
1:03.3	It might even make math something you both look forward to.
1:06.6	Gillian Starkie is a professor in neuroscience with an emphasis on children's developing math skills.
1:12.6	Hi, Jillian.
1:13.8	Hi, Jessica.
1:15.2	So when we talk about math learning in early childhood, what are we exactly talking about?
1:20.7	What constitutes math for babies?
1:23.0	Yeah, so I think when people in general think of math, a lot of us think of computation and algebra and things that we feel like kids that young are nowhere near ready for.
1:35.6	But I think that all begins with just an understanding of what numbers represent.
1:40.8	And so when we talk about math with young children and particularly with infants, we're talking
1:46.2	about like a familiarity with number words and concepts like none or more or less, bigger and
1:53.7	smaller.
1:54.9	And a lot of things that they encounter naturally in their environments like shapes can sort of be used to teach those concepts
2:02.9	at a really young age. I had wondered too about sequences. So when you do a routine with your baby
	...

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