Numeration

Elisabeth's numeration skills have improved dramatically over the past few months. Formerly, when counting objects, she would continue to recite the numbers even after we ran out of objects. (Clearly she had the sense of progression, but not of value.) Now she knows to stop when we get to the last object, and that the number on which we end is the total number of objects. She can fairly successfully count objects up to ten, although she sometimes misses an object or double counts one.

What she doesn't yet have is a sense of what the numbers mean - beyond their value. A little illustration may make this plain. It is not unusual that Elisabeth wants the meal to be over before she has finished the food on her plate, so one of us will say to her, "You need to have three more bites," to which she replies,

"No! Four!"

Some things work to our advantage . . .