Give Your Toddler a Head Start with Everyday Math Talk
Children develop math concepts and skills very early in life. From the moment they are born, babies begin to form ideas about math through everyday experiences and, most important, through interactions with trusted adults. Language—how we talk with infants and toddlers about math ideas like more, empty, and full—matters.
We Talk Math All the Time!
We use basic math language all the time, without realizing it. For example, when we separate clothes by color, we’re using the math concepts of sorting and classifying. When we keep score during a game and determine how much our team is ahead or behind (number and operations), or give someone directions to get from one place to another (spatial relationships)—that’s math.
We constantly use comparison words (measurement) such as big and little and use patterns to explain the order of daily routines and activities (“We brush our teeth after breakfast”). With our children, we play games and sing songs that use numbers and counting (such as ”One, Two, Buckle My Shoe”).
Toddlers Use Math to Make Sense of Their World
Even without our support, infants and toddlers use math concepts to make sense of their world. Babies tell us—often dramatically—that they know the difference between familiar and unfamiliar adults (sorting and classifying). Toddlers try to climb into boxes of various sizes (spatial relationships) and say words and phrases from familiar stories or songs that use repetition (patterns).
When we are aware of early math concepts, we can be more thoughtful in our everyday interactions with infants and toddlers.
Here are three basic math talk concepts that can be woven into our everyday conversations with infants and toddlers.
1. Number and operations—understanding the concept of number, quantity, order, ways of representing numbers, one-to-one correspondence (that one object corresponds to one number), and counting.
“You have two eyes, and so does your bear. Let’s count:–1, 2.”
2. Shapes and spatial relationships (geometry)—recognizing and naming shapes, understanding the physical relationship between yourself and other objects and the relationships between objects.
“Some of the crackers we have today are square, and some are round.”
3. Collecting and organizing information—gathering, sorting, classifying, and analyzing information (data) to help make sense of what is happening in the environment.
“Let’s put the big lid on the big bowl and the small lid on the small bowl.”
Make Math Talk Routine
Talk math with your child as a matter of routine. For example, meal and bath times, neighborhood walks, and shopping trips are ideal times to count, point out shapes and sizes, talk about patterns, and describe how things are the same and different.
Math talk enriches everyday learning experiences for infants and toddlers. You’ll be surprised at how much they know and can learn. Your math talk today can help your children be successful in math as they get older.
