ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of the fundamental learning that underpins learning about number. It includes developing working memory and understanding object permanence, tracking and understanding sequential movement, awareness of spatial arrangement and groupings, and experience of sizes and comparisons. Awareness of object permanence develops through a range of levels at different periods in children's cognitive growth. Typical children initially develop their appreciation through progressive personal, social, practical and playful experiences. These limitations influence the earliest levels of information gathering, and though most people develop strategies to accommodate them, those difficulties are certainly the root of issues for some pupils, so it is well worth finding ways to practice intuitive responses to size. Indeed, rapid identification or comparison of groups – developing 'number sense' – is increasingly being identified as a key to progress for many pupils who have difficulties with number, including mainstream children with dyscalculia.
