Young Children’s Early Mathematical Competencies: The Role of Mathematical Focusing Tendencies

In this chapter we review and discuss a relatively new line of research in the domain of early mathematical development that addresses the dispositional rather than the ability aspect of children’s early mathematical competence, namely their tendencies to attend to and focus on various mathematical elements in their environment and its relation with (later) mathematical development in school. So far, most of this research has been done on young children’s spontaneous focusing on numerosity (SFON), but to a much lesser extent, similar efforts have been made for Arabic number symbols (SFONS), quantitative relations (SFOR), and mathematical patterns (SFOP). Our review and discussion of these four mathematical focusing tendencies are organized around the following four themes: definition, measurement, development, and stimulation.

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