Counting

When an understanding of numerals has been acquired by the students, teachers will begin to teach the process of reciting numbers in a particular order, or counting.  Gelman and Gallistel (1992) state that counting involves a number of different principles.  The most common ones are one-to-one principle, stable-order principle, cardinal principle, abstraction principle and order-irrelevance principle.  Teachers may use the following learning experiences to develop the students’ ability to count. 

One-to-one principle: When counting, only one number word is assigned to each object. 

Stable-order principle: When counting, number words are always assigned in the same order. 

Cardinal principle: Having knowledge that the last number name said describes the total quantity.

Order-irrelevance principle: When counting the number of objects in a set, the order they are counted is irrelevant, as long as each object is counted.

Abstraction principle: Students realise that numbers can be used to count anything.  

Below is a link to a website that helps students to count.
http://www.abc.net.au/countusin/

Teachers can use resources like this in their classroom to ensure learners grasp their first step in Maths and able to count at early age.