Counting

There are 5 main counting principles that children have to understand the concept of counting.

One-to-one principle
"This involves the assigning of one, and only one, distinct counting word to each of the items to be counted. To follow this principle, a child has to be able to partition and repartition the collection of objects to be counted into two categories: those that have been allocated a number name and those that have not. If an item is not assigned a number name or is assigned more than one number name, the resulting count will be incorrect" (Thompson  2010, p.1).

Stable order principle
Comprehension of the correct order of the numerical. Example: after 5 comes 6 then 7 and 8 etc...


Here is an example of online activity that children can participate for further understanding of stable order principle.
Counting



Cardinal principle
'Knowing the last listed number is in fact the number of object present' (Thompson, 2010).



Abstraction principle
"This states that the preceding principles can be applied to any collection of objects, whether tangible or not. Obviously, for young children learning to count it is easier if the objects are tangible and, where possible, moveable, in order to help them to distinguish the 'already counted' from the 'yet to be counted' group. To understand this principle, children need to appreciate that they can count non-physical things such as sounds, imaginary objects or even the counting words - as is the case when 'counting on'" (Thompson 2010, p. 2).



The order-irrelevance principle

This principle refers to "the knowledge that the order in which items are counted is irrelevant" (Thompson 2010, p. 2). It does not matter if the children  is carried out the counting from right to left or vice versa, the item that has being counted will remain in the same amount.

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