Over the last 20 years there have been significant developments in our understandings of how 3-7-year-olds learn mathematics effectively. Many of the international studies published during this period have practical relevance for the mathematics we prepare in pre-school settings, Reception and KS1 classrooms. One significant development in our understanding of the early learning of number is the recognition that establishing a robust connection between numbers and quantities is not simple and that these connections continue to be forged between the ages of 5 and 9 years of age:
“Because the connections between quantities and numbers are many and varied, learning about these connections could take three to four years in primary school.” (Nunes and Bryant, 2009: 4)
It is important that practitioners continue to provide plentiful and varied opportunities for children to organise, estimate, count, compare, share out and label groups of objects, in many contexts and for different purposes well into Y2.