Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

4-25-2025

Keywords

adulthood, birth, childhood, early in life, estimating amount, everyday living, items, life precision, mathematical skills, mathematics, number sense (estimating without symbols), objects, parallel individuation (tracking through space/time), problem solving, prosperity, small sets, small number, societies, human survival, symbols, universal usage, world function

Disciplines

Developmental Psychology

Abstract

Mathematical Skills are essential for understanding how the world works and for solving problems that are important to human survival and prosperity.  They are used in everyday living in societies across the world.  The most basic mathematical skills involve estimating the amount of small sets of items without using symbols, called number sense, and tracking a small number of individual objects through space and time, called parallel individuation.  These skills are thought to be present at birth or early in life and to increase in precision into adulthood.

Download

Share

COinS