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It looks so appealing, teaching numbers by using characters like in the image to the right.
Sadly it is much more meaningful to adults, who already understand the meaning of the number than to children. New research by Ohio State university has shown that the complexity of relating characters or faces to numbers only confuses chidlren and hides the deeper meaning of the symbol.
Here is the thing! Children are quite clever enough to understand the symbolism that is inherent in written numbers. Vladimir Sloutsky, who has touch of the Tim Allens about his appearance, thinks
Many teachers believe that concrete materials make learning more fun for students, and that will increase their motivation and help them understand the concepts. While this may be true, in many cases, the concrete materials also interfere with what they are trying to learn.”
It seems that if you want to teach your child about numbers it is best to simply show them some numbers. All the cute characters only confuse them.
There are many jewels hidden amongst the leaves in this forgotten part of the ancient forest. Spend some time browsing and you are sure to find some. Click here or continue your search below
or read the most recent entries here.We have taught all of our children sign language by signing to them as we speak from birth. They pickup up on it within a few months and that is also where they first learn numbers. The first numbers we teach are "wait, 1, 2, 3". They learn the pattern. Later, but not by much, they learn to count "one", "two", "three". All of that is in sign since they are still pre-verbal at that stage. It has worked well for us and they are all excellent at math. How much is nurture, us doing that, and how much is nature, I'm very math inclined and their mother is musically inclined, can be debated. :)
Posted by: Walter Jeffries at October 12, 2005 12:27 PM
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