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5 Year Old & Math Operations

Math Made Easy: Study Reveals 5-year-olds' Innate Ability

Young children can perform certain kinds of math operations before ever receiving any kind formal math training, a new study reports. The finding suggests children have an inborn intuition about math that could be used to make learning the real thing in school less painful.
Ref. https://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20050916/sc_...dsinnateability

Operations Math and Year

I would have to examine this report in much more detail than is given here. Through the reporting it seems that the study has several inherent flaws. One it is only slightly under 67% of the children that responded. Just slightly more than 50% if they were just guessing and under one sigma of deviation. WOuld need to know if the responses were individual or group. Also there may be some influence in the colors or just the many more dots on the screen so they would think it is more. There is at least on good phd thesis buried in this experiment.

Wyldehorse

5 Year Old & Math Operations UFO & Writing Art Education Sciences

My grandson has been doing simple addition since he was three. I realize it isn't the same as the types of mathematic solutions these kids have been working, but I think it shows that kids do have an innate sense for these things.

Since he was around three my grandson would ask me things like "Grandma, did you know that 8 + 2 = 10." Over the years, he has presented more complex addition, but still he has been very interested in math since age three without any formal training in any way.

His understanding was very basic, though. For example, if he told me 8 + 2 = 10 and then asks me what 7 + 3 = and I also said 10, he would argue that it couldn't be true because 8 + 2 = 10. Now, over time, I was able to teach him that there is more than one combination that will equal a certain number, but that is training not innate.