FM.J.81 ONE OBJECT ON CUE

This exercise is different from the others in this sequence in that it involves no matching. It could equally well be included among the Receptive Language skills, but we place it here because it relates to the pre-academic concept of number.

Giving or taking just one object is a useful skill for a child to know, as can be testified by any parent whose child likes to take whatever is offering by the handful.

How to Assess

Materials: 2 dishes, each containing several identical objects. For example one dish of blue pegs and one dish of red blocks.

Method: Place the first dish in front of your child and put your hand near the dish. Say ‘Give me one . . .’. If your child gives you one, pause to see if your child attempts to give you more before moving your hand away. Repeat with the second dish.

Score plus if your child gives you one object on both tries, without attempting to give you more than one.

How to Teach

This is not an easy skill to teach, as it can be hard for the child to see where he is going wrong in the early stages. After all, up to now you have been delighted whenever he has given you anything!

Teach as much as possible in natural situations. Instead of giving him one sultana, offer him the plate and guide him physically and verbally to take just one. Do this with biscuits, chips and so on.

In special teaching sessions, you can proceed as in the assessment, helping him to stop after he has given one object. Say: ‘Look, I’ve got one. No more.’ You might also use a hand signal, such as a stop sign, to remind him.

Take turns with your child – you be the giver sometimes. Say: ‘I’ll give you one. Any more? No, just one.’

Gradually reduce your physical and verbal reminders until he can follow the direction without help.

Playtime and Round-the-house Activities

As we have said, this skill is best taught in natural situations. As well as food items, you can practise giving one with blocks, pegs (at the clothes line) and spoons (when setting the table).

Remembering and Extending

This skill has so many practical uses that you will not find it hard to provide practice.

This is a good place for some general comments about teaching early number skills. Beyond this point, number is not directly covered in this manual – it comes into its own when children are working at the 4-5-year-old level. However, if you wish, and if your child has the necessary language skills, there is no reason why you can’t start now to teach your child to count. Counting objects and saying number rhymes are, after all, natural things to do with a child.

Small children learn to count first by rote; they reel the numbers of, imitating their parents,without any real understanding of what they are doing. They learn that numbers are said whenever there is more than one of something. What educators call ‘one-to-one correspondence’– the ability to say one number for each object being counted – comes much later.

The important point to remember is this. Rote counting is the foundation for all later number work, and it is vital that your child learns to rote count (that is, say the numbers) correctly. If you give him 3 things and he counts ‘l, 2, 3, 4, 5’, don’t worry – in time he will learn what counting is for. But if he says the numbers in the wrong order or leaves one out, take time to correct him right from the beginning. If he says to himself, over and over, ‘l, 2, 3, 5, 6’, he will learn this pattern and it will be very hard for him to unlearn it again.

The solution is simple. Just make sure that he hears correct counting more often than he hears incorrect counting – from himself or anyone else. If he counts ‘l, 2, 3, 5, 6’, step in and say (without recriminations) ‘1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6’. And then say it again!

If you would like more information about the Macquarie approach to teaching number, please refer to the ordering information in Book 1,Chapter 5.