What is counting, anyway?

When I hear parents and caregivers talking about how high their child can count, they’re usually referring to how high they can recite the number words in order: "one, two, three, four..." While reciting the number words out loud in the right order is definitely a huge milestone for kids, it’s really just the first step in learning to count!

While a child might be able to sing a song from Frozen and say all of the words out loud, that doesn’t mean they understand what “frozen fractals” are! In a similar way, the list of number words acts like a placeholder as kids learn more about numbers and their relationships to each other.

So what is counting?

Counting answers the question “How many?” To truly count, children need to match each number word to one object in a set and understand that the final number they say represents the total amount.

Unlike many early math concepts that can’t simply be memorized, the list of number names is a memorized sequence, just like the ABCs or lyrics to a song. That means kids need plenty of repetition and practice hearing and saying number words in order.

To give your child lots of fun opportunities to practice the list of number words, try singing counting songs, using fingerplays, and adding counting practice into your child’s favorite activities and daily routines.

Here’s a fun song from Super Simple Songs that’s great for practicing the count list, and is great practice for showing numbers on their hands, and here is one of our favorite finger plays to practice counting to five: