Step 1: Math Talk – Early and Often
Exposure
During these early years, it is all about exposure! Your child is being exposed to a wide array of experiences and is discovering patterns in everything they sense. As part of exposing your child to the world, expose them to math words and ideas. Let them see how enjoyable it can be to play with math together.
Start early
Start this even before your child seems to understand what you’re saying. Your child is a sponge who is getting more from your words than you realize.
Point and describe
Point at things your child interacts with and describe them with words involving numbers, shapes, and colors. If you are dealing with a small set of things, count them out loud to your child.
Many facets of Math Talk
There is much more math to talk about than just numbers.
- Describe things. Talk about sizes, colors, textures, shapes, softness, wetness, hotness, brightness, and more. Naming and describing properties is essential for comparing them and discovering patterns.
- Use comparison words. Bigger, smaller, tallest, widest, more, less, same, …
- Use position words. Over, under, between, near, far, above, …
- Talk about patterns and sequences in space and time. Refer to the order of things as first, second, third, and last. Talk about what just happened, what is about to happen, and things happening today. Talk about patterns in designs you see.
- Count things out loud and say numbers to refer to quantities.
- Use measurement words. Use words for length, area, weight, and volume whenever you are describing sizes.
This is all math:
These different ways of describing things and their relationships is talking about math! Building up this vocabulary and concepts will help your child develop mathematically. It will also give a big boost to helping your child read and talk about the world.