Count, Group and Compare with Toddler

Count, Group and Compare with Your Toddler

Note to parents and caregivers: Young children need opportunities to practice comparing and grouping objects by observing characteristics like shape, size, color, and texture. In addition to educational toys, simple objects found in nature can provide rich experiences in grouping and comparing.

Activity #1

Take your child for a walk around your yard, neighborhood, or a public park. Choose a particular type of nature object to collect in a bag as you go- for example, rocks, leaves, or twigs. When you return home, sit with your child and help them categorize the objects in various ways. You might put rocks in a row, arranged from smallest to largest. Or you might sort leaves by color.

For older children, you can practice sorting the same objects in multiple ways.  For younger children, the activity could be as simple as looking at individual objects and using comparative language to describe them to your child. For example, “This rock feels very bumpy. This one feels smooth.”

Note to parents and caregivers: Most parents introduce early math concepts to their child by counting aloud (so that the child memorizes the order of the numbers) and by physically counting small groups of objects.

With practice, children 18 months to 3 years can learn to rote count (i.e., recite the numbers in order) and recognize/count very small groups of objects (1, 2, 3). But many parents forget to introduce their young children to the concept of zero, or assume that they won’t understand. Not so! Developing an understanding of the meaning of zero is an important foundation for math skills. 

Activity #2

As soon as your child seems to have a basic understanding of what it means to have 1 object vs. 2 objects, begin to introduce zero. Play simple games with small toys, showing them what it looks like to have 1 or 2 toys, or zero toys. This can be playful- children delight in the idea that zero means “none”! This can also be incorporated into everyday activities.

For example, after your child eats the last grape on their plate, you might say “Look at that- you have zero grapes left!” As they become more confident with this concept, you can play games where they are tasked with bringing you a certain number of objects. You’ll know they’ve mastered this concept when they respond correctly to your request to bring you zero of something!