Maths for lil’ ones!

“One, two, three o'clock, four o'clock rock
Five, six, seven o'clock, eight o'clock rock!”
I’m sure parents would love for their little ones to belt out a tune like that in a snap. The reality is, the truth bites harder. Allow me, Sam Yoong as I help you unravel while getting you to the world of education on maths for these ultra-young ones.

The beginning of time for babies
Babies’ mental development begins even from the time that they’re inside their mother’s womb. Upon being born into this world, babies’ minds continue to stimulate, and develop. The first few years of a child’s life, serves as an important period for parents to educate their little ones. For it is during childhood that the little ones’ brains develop rapidly.

Babies are doing maths. Believe it.
One of the areas where education could play a part in children is mathematics. From a recent research, it was discovered that babies were able to do maths prior to them having the ability to speak verbally. The discovery was made by Kerry Jordan and Dr. Elizabeth Brannon, both psychologists from Duke University. It was also Brannon’s hope that methods of educating maths to children could be developed someday. The findings were documented in the February 2006 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Babies said “we’ve got proof for those who don’t believe!”
In the research to gauge the infants’ level of skills in maths; twenty of the little ones ranging from age six to eight months old were chosen for participation. In the test conducted, two video monitors were placed side by side, with the audio source hidden somewhere. Two audio tracks were played, one at a time; one with 2 women saying ‘look’ simultaneously and the other with 3 women doing the exact thing. Whilst on the video; one is showing an image of 2 women; and the other 3 women saying the word. It was being observed that infants in the test spent more time, looking at the video monitor that corresponded with the audio track they hear.

The brain functions involved when doing maths
2 of our brain functions come into play when it comes to maths; one gained through cultivation of what we learn through our teachers in school. The other one is a more intuitive, and abstract feel to figures (which is the sole attribute that babies possess).

Babies with their mentioned inbuilt ability are able to; for instance, discern that three is less than four. As they grow from infancy, they would learn to tie the more intuitive feel (when dealing with figures) to the skills we adults picked up on maths in school.


Shaping the little Einsteins in Maths
Parents play major role in getting their children exposed to maths in a fun manner. Instances where this can happen are as follows:

(The following bulleted points as extracted from http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/ofhc/news/Other/4880.asp)

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  Playing board games, where a roll of the dice in snakes-and-ladders or a key move at the checkerboard is all about geometry, logic, and numbers.
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  Cooking, in which quantities are important
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  Shopping; this features concrete numbers like size and abstract numbers such as cost.
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  Driving; this has all kinds of quantities like time, speed, and distance.
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  Organising, an activity in which we use similarity to sort things, and size estimates to figure out where we can fit them.
  
  

The other ways of subtle yet effective ways of introducing maths to your child progressively:

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  For instance, you say “one” whilst having a Lego brick in hand, and by placing another brick in hand, you say “plus another one” – which you then would promptly conclude with “equals two!” (The concept of addition)
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  By having him observing you during cooking / slicing of fruits. For instance, amidst slicing an orange into two, you casually say “see, an orange, sliced in two, becomes two!” (The concept of division)
  
  

The concept of minus, and multiplication then, is reverse mechanisms to above mentioned concepts of addition and division respectively. When things evident in our surroundings are converged with maths, children get to visualise better on concepts before progressing to the maths in written form.


Babies’ mathematics boot campIntroducing maths to babies ought to be done naturally and progressively through time. By progressive introduction to maths, things fall in line to enable children to grasp on maths, starting off with simple arithmetic.

Children used to be repetitively ‘drilled’ on a certain topic before they get to learn a new lesson. Nowadays, children who learn by concepts would enjoy themselves much more as opposed to children who had learned by rote who would feel hassles; when it comes to working with maths.


Parents’ manual
By bearing these in mind; young ones should be allowed liberty to learn at their own pace in order to effect a successful learning. Never let anything negative to get in the way though; elements that would discourage your child in the process of learning.

Lastly, should you child feel weary or discouraged, taking a break would be a wise option.



References:

http://www.bloggingbaby.com/

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  http://www.abc.net.au/
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  http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/
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  www.geocities.com/sueincyprus/maths/maths_toddlers.htm