The Number-Word Sequence: An Overview of Its Acquisition and Elaboration

Abstract

This chapter briefly reviews children’s learning about the English sequence of number words. We find it helpful to separate such learning into two distinct, although overlapping, phases: a first acquisition phase, in which children learn to say the conventional sequence correctly, and a later elaboration phase, in which equivalence and order relations and operations on sequence words¹ are constructed and the sequence can be produced in more sophisticated and complex ways (Fuson, Richards, & Briars, 1982). These phases are overlapping because the early part of the sequence may be undergoing elaboration while later parts are still being acquired (i.e., cannot yet be said correctly). While children are still learning the sequence, the incorrect sequences they produce have certain characteristics. These are outlined in 2.1. The more advanced sequence skills, which come to be learned during the elaborative phase, are discussed in 2.2. A much more thorough discussion and presentation of data about each of these phases is given in Fuson et al. (1982). We draw heavily on the data in that paper in the following summary; where data are not otherwise identified, they are from that paper.