Young children’s spontaneous focusing on quantitative aspects and their verbalizations of their quantitative reasoning.

Abstract

This paper presents a cross-sectional study of young children’s Spontaneous<br />Focusing on quantitative Relations (SFOR), Spontaneous Focusing on Numerosity<br />(SFON) and verbalizations of their quantitative reasoning. Two tasks were presented<br />to 4.5 to 8 year old children (N=86) during two separate sessions, first in order to<br />measure their SFOR and SFON tendencies and second in order to measure their<br />verbalizations of their quantitative reasoning through stimulated response questions.<br />Children were found to differ in their SFOR and SFON tendencies. Children’s SFOR<br />tendency increased with age. Children were more likely to perform the task based on<br />SFOR or SFON than they were likely to verbalize about their quantitative reasoning<br />during the stimulated recall session.