ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the role of a specific ability: the production of the standard sequence of number words. Mastery of number word sequence proves critically important in the development of arithmetical skills in children. It sometimes appears as a backup procedure in adults’ counting and can consequently constitute in aphasic subjects another source of linguistic error resulting in calculation disorders. Insight into the lexical structure of counting words and into the psycho-linguistic procedures that organize them in the standard sequence is also provided by the distribution of the stopping points and incidental jumps in child productions. Counting skills have also been reported incidentally in some detailed single-case investigations. Oral accompanying behavior appeared not only in written but also in oral counting. As evidenced both quantitatively by significant correlations and qualitatively by the analysis of oral counting at a verbal lexical level, the similarities between oral and alphabetical written countings are important.
