Counting in young children promotes sharing

A new study published in Child Development showed that symbolic counting skills were the single biggest predictor of children’s fair sharing behavior and that prompting children to count also improved this behavior.

"A young child's counting skills are the single biggest predictor of their ability to participate in fair sharing behaviors. Prompting children to count improves their pro-social sharing behaviors, researchers say."

"A core aspect of fairness is the ability to divide resources impartially among others. Previous research has shown that fair sharing behavior is a skill typically learned between the ages of four and six. However, little is known about the cognitive building blocks that develop these skills."

At Mathnasium, our Number Fluency topics for elementary students helps give them mental math strategies to count from any number to any number. And we've seen how this skill sets them up well for multiplication and estimating.  We are thrilled to know it sets them up socially as well.

Source: https://neurosciencenews.com/sharing-counting-children-20479/
Source: Society for Research in Child Development