Supporting the development of number fact knowledge in five- and six-year-olds

Abstract

This paper focuses on children’s number fact knowledge from a study that explored the impact of using multiplication and division contexts for developing number understanding with 34 five- and six-year-old children from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. After a series of focused lessons, children’s knowledge of number facts, including single digit addition, subtraction, and doubles had improved. However, they did not always apply this knowledge to relevant problem-solving situations. The magnitude of the numbers did not necessarily determine the difficulty level for achieving automaticity of number fact knowledge.