Case Study on Development and Learning of 4-5 Year-old Children's Counting Ability

This case study focused on a 4.5 year old child in Shanghai, based on  with researching material collected from literature, observation and interview, aimed at ascertaining the counting ability of the child under... [ view full abstract ]

This case study focused on a 4.5 year old child in Shanghai, based on  with researching material collected from literature, observation and interview, aimed at ascertaining the counting ability of the child under observation and the developing and learning characters during the child’s obtaining process.

The study shows that 4-5 years old children have gained ability of counting the total number of a group of items less than ten but with occasion mistakes when total number over ten. Child in the age group of 4-5 also developed the conscious of counting numbers by small groups but in a rather immature level, thereby they are in the transition stage between counting individually and counting by small groups. During the children’s obtaining process of counting ability, the gestures utilized by them indicated strong characters. With respect of the hand movement, it developed through three stages from touching to pointing at the items and ultimately the children can count numbers with only the association of eye sights. In this viewpoint, the development of children’s counting ability follows the rules proved by existing research results. However, the observation from this study also indicates that when the counting task goes beyond the counting ability mastered by child, the gestures employed by the object will be likely to degrade to former stage. With respect of the mouth assistance, children aged between four and five initiated from counting loudly to rather quietly and ultimately they will be able to count only to the heart.

Therefore, the research suggests that teachers should observe the level of counting ability gained by each child to detect the child's zone of proximal development and give them timely "bracket" when needed; the educational counting activities should be designed with simulation of real-life situations.