ABSTRACT
Children's earliest experiences of moving themselves in space and time, tracking, sequentially scanning or touching arrays of objects and itemising fingers all contribute to them developing both spatial awareness and awareness of sequence. Typically developing children will follow sequences of action and sound that, when related to pointing at or placing objects, helps them establish the idea of the one-to-one sequencing of number. They also naturally arrange objects as part of their play processes and may connect linear arrangements of small quantities to the language of 'ordinal number' when they hear it modelled by adults. The connection between fingers, space and number interests psychologists and neuroscientists. The idea of a number line begins with small, perceptible quantities. The mental image of a number line initially grows due to a combination of number sense and finger counting.
