. "3 The Importance of Individual and Cultural Variations." Eager to Learn: Educating Our Preschoolers. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2000.
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NOTES: Estimates based on first-time kindergartners. Percentages may not sum to 100 due to rounding.
*less than 0.5 percent.
mathematics, just as they are predisposed to learn language (Gelman and Gallistel, 1978; National Research Council, 1999). As with language, however, there is variability in the rate at which an understanding of early mathematical knowledge and concepts is acquired. These early concepts and skills include the recognition of shape and size and eventually pattern, the ability to count verbally (first forward and later backward), the recognition of numerals, and the ability to identify quantity from a very general level (more and less) to a specific level requiring the mastery of one-to-one correspondence (e.g., knowing which group has four and which has five). Case et al. (1999) argue that in acquiring early mathematical concepts, young children create a mental number line and come to understand that movement forward and backward along the cardinal numbers on that line represents a
