They Still Can't Count: Assessing and Supporting Children's Counting Difficulties in the Early Years of Schooling

Abstract

In this article, the authors describe their efforts to teach counting skills to their class of 5- to 7-year-olds at the Glenleighden School, located in a a suburb of Brisbane. As Glenleighden early childhood teachers, they work in collaboration with a multi-disciplinary team that supports children with speech and language difficulties. Mathematically, their students typically have difficulty reciting counting patterns, understanding symbols such as numerals, and are challenged when invited to verbalise their thinking. As a result of their research investigations on children's counting, they developed a diagnostic observational assessment form to use in their classroom, the Glenleighden Counting Analysis. Just as English teachers regularly complete a "running record" to record and analyse a child's reading behaviours, the Glenleighden Counting Analysis can be used to record and carefully analyse children's counting activities. Following the analysis they were able to create activities that targeted each child's specific weakness rather than wasting scarce instruction time on aspects of counting in which they already demonstrated competence.