Building Numeracy Skills in Toddlers

Encouraging toddlers imbibe numeracy skills will help them a lot to prepare for preschools. Here is how you can build numeracy skills in your toddler.Your child needs to learn a number of things before her first day of school, and the good news is that she can easily learn them at home. Young children have an instinctive sense of addition and subtraction through their everyday interactions; though there are many workbooks available in the market, you can also incorporate these yourself. So what are the skills your child needs to learn before starting school?a) The concept of shape, size, position, direction and patterns. For example – a big red ball.b) The ability to recognize and count numbers from one to ten.c) One-to-one correspondence; matching sets or knowing which group has more or less objects.d) The ability to add and subtract small quantities of familiar objects.e) Basic measurement skills such as length, height and weight of an object. In this articleHow to Help Your Child with Numeracy Skills?Play with ShapesGroup Things TogetherThe Calendar SystemMake Learning Time FunLet Your Child Help at HomeHow to Help Your Child with Numeracy Skills?Though the task seems daunting, you will be astonished to see how your child would learn mathematics in the course of her daily activities as she helps you around the home or is playing with her friends – all you need is the best method and patience.1. Play with ShapesMake shapes interesting for your child using shape-sorters or by cutting paper into different shapes. Talk to her about different shapes and where they are found. Let her count the sides, describe the colours and talk about similar shapes she has seen at home. Keep the shapes basic and simple - circles, rectangles, squares and triangles at first and then move onto more complex shapes.2. Group Things TogetherGive your child a bag of chunky beads and tell her to group them according to their shape, size and colours. Count with your child at the beginning, but she should be able to do this on her own after a while. You can also play a game by collecting a group of balls into a bag and having your child guess the number. Count the number of balls and see who comes closest to the correct answer.3. The Calendar SystemIt is never too early to start teaching her the address and phone number of your house. Tell her about the days of the week and weather, by telling her about the different clothes we wear during each season. To make things fun, you can make a chart where the child can put a sticker each time it rains or is sunny; at the end of each week, count the stickers in each column.4. Make Learning Time FunMake study time interesting for your child by reading her stories, singing songs and reciting poems. Choose books with numbers in them that repeat, rhyme and have rhythm. This exercise will help her practice language and social skills. Encourage your child to spot patterns at home, such as the dry food items, pieces of cut-out paper or flowers on the walls. When your child goes out to play, teach her the meanings of over-under, inside-outside and small-big. Simple games such as snakes and ladders, Ludo and skittles will help your child with mathematical language.5. Let Your Child Help at HomeLet your child help in age-appropriate household duties. As you are sorting out the laundry, tell your child to sort out shirts and socks, and make pairs of socks of the same colour and size. Help your child count the number of shirts and socks. Take your child’s help in the kitchen as well and let her fill, stir and pour, helping her to count, measure, add and estimate. She could also help in distributing snacks to guests, by emphasizing the number concept – “Give two toffees to each of your friends.”Teaching your child involves a great deal of creativity and innovation to make things interesting. Experiment these methods and more to see what suits her best. With a little care and perseverance, your little one will be able to adapt very well to the school system and emerge as a bright student in future.Why is it necessary to build numeracy skills in toddlers? How to help toddlers build numeracy skills? Which activities can help to cultivate numeracy skills in toddlers? Discuss here.