Number sense in early and elementary mathematics education

Abstract

Number sense is crucial in daily life and therefore an important aspect of education. The development of number sense recently attracted the attention of an increasing number of researchers in the domains of cognitive and developmental (neuro)psychology, (psychology of) mathematics education, special education, and educational neuroscience. In this article, we integrate and discuss the major results of these numerous studies on children’s acquisition of number sense. We start with the definition of the concept of number sense. Afterwards, we summarize the major findings on children’s acquisition of number sense from infancy to the early school years. Next, we provide an overview of recent intervention studies aiming at stimulating the development of number sense in young children. We end with a summary of the major findings and future issues for studies in this domain