Counting in English: What Part does Language Play?
Introduction
The core aim of this paper is to examine the students’ understanding of the numerical counting aspect resulting from their knowledge of English language. There is a necessity of determining if a pupil can communicate effectively through the understanding of the English language; which has emanated from the notion that every child needs the best starting point in life as well as the support that enables them to identify and fulfill their potential (Stock, Desoete, and Roeyers, 2009, p. 419). The development of a child seems to be rapid in the early years; thus, the experience of the child between birth and five years can tremendously affect their life chances in the offing. The studies on this subject hold that the development of communication and language has to comprise providing children the opportunities to explore an environment that is rich in the English language (Abedi and Lord, 2001, p. 219). Through this aspect, their skills and confidence are developed in their expressions, influencing the way they listen and speak in various situations.
This study is crucial because it provides insights on the ability of students to count objects based on the understanding of the English language among the young learners. Various researchers have argued that such knowledge is a critical requirement of a child during their early years of development since it gives them a firm foundation in counting objects in later days (Department of Education, 2017, p. 5). The main question that the research seeks to address is “what part does language play in counting objects? For the purpose of this research, a statutory framework of understanding has been suggested for the early-years providers in the maintained schools, independent schools, and non-maintained schools among others. The research methodology will focus on children between 3.8 years and 4.4 years to determine their counting ability of up to 20 units. Furthermore, the paper seeks to analyze and evaluate observations made concerning the rates of learning and the depth of the language learning ability of the students. Additionally, it is necessary to look into the role played by the English language in the understanding of pupils in Mathematics lessons.
Models of Understanding
Understanding as the Performance
The model of understanding has been equated to the student’s ability to reason and his or her flexibility in acting on what they have knowledge about. Perkins (1998, p.39) proposes the model of performances of understanding where he notes that students can demonstrate the understanding they have concerning their goals via sequential learning experience performances. The teachers have seemed to craft the performances as more challenging as opposed to the ordinary activities and as well engage the learners actively to attain the high order skills of reasoning (Isbell, 2002, p. 26). To enhance understanding as performance, four elements that promote a shared teaching for acquiring the knowledge among the children have been suggested (Solano-Flores, 2008, p.189). Such elements include understanding the goals, generative topics, ongoing assessment, and performances of understanding.
In this performance perspective, Barnes (1992, p. 126) identifies the two different roles of the talk between the exploratory and presentational talks. Barnes further suggested that the teachers need to take into account where and when to employ the exploratory and presentational talk among the children and as well ensure there is a balance among them (Barnes, 1992, p.126). In this case, the exploratory talk allows the students to attempt ideas, to hear their sounding, to find out how others view them, and to make arrangements of the ideas and information into distinct patterns. On the other hand, presentational talk pays more attention on the necessities of the teacher rather on the ideas of the learner (Skidmore, Perez-Parent, and Arnfielf, 2003, p. 47). In most cases, this situation takes place when the teacher attempts to look for the answers from the students to gauge their understanding of the subject which they have already learnt. Finally, it rests with the teachers to improve the quality of the classroom discourse by increasing the quality of learning among the learners to achieve their higher understanding of the language concepts (Zang 2008, p. 82; Abedi and Gandara, 2006, p. 36; Bermejo, Morales, and deOsuna, 2004, p. 481).
Research Methodology
Case Example
The research method used in this study was based on the case example from Maybin, Mercer, and Stierer (1992, p. 188) using the learning and talk in the classroom, with the concept of scaffolding. The criteria used involved some evidence of a student who accomplished a given task successfully with the teacher’s assistance. The sequential approach used in Maybin et al. (1992) has been used to develop the structure of the questions addressed in this study. The case examples have provided the background information concerning the participants as well as their status of EAL (Merriam, 1988, p. 101). Additionally, such examples have been helpful in the provision of an in-depth description of the activities, narrative of the participants, the analysis of the observations or interviews, and their objectives as well as the relevance to the study.
The criteria for this study includde the grouping of the participants based on their ability of the English language instead of their mathematical ability as shown in Appendix 1 and a sequence of counting lessons shown in Appendix 2. The section of the participant’s English language ability were examined on the basis of low, medium, and high English language ability. In the section of a sequence of counting lessons, three lessons were considered. The lesson entailed ten title teddies where the participants are expected to count objects to ten, match the quantity and numeral rightly, and split the objects in various ways. The second lesson involved counting of elephant pictures; participants were required to count twenty objects. The final lesson comprised counting ladders and snakes to twenty objects. Four children from in nursery school were used as participants. One of them was from the low ability Math group, two from the medium group, and the other one from the high ability math category. In the last case example, the study used the results from the research in the exploration of the way teaching via English affects the depth and speed of understanding among the students of EAL.
Ethical Considerations
Since this research involved human participants, it was important to adhere to different ethical principles. In this case, it was essential that the examination be viewed from the perspective of all the participants, where foreseeable threats to their values, health, dignity, or psychological well-being had to be removed. The first principle that the researchers considered was the consent whereby all the participants were informed concerning the objective of the study prior to its commencement (Halai, 2006, p. 5). In this case, the real consent of the children with understanding and communication impairment required permission from the class teacher prior to continuing with the study. The researcher then obtained the Ethics Committee’s approval.
The second ethical principle that the researchers needed to take into account was the aspect of confidentiality. The participant’s information collected during the research is confidential in line with the legislation standards which include the Data Protection Act (Halai, 2006, p. 6). In this context, the participants used in the research are entitled to the confidentiality of the information which they gave, and if published without their consent, it would not be considered as theirs. In case there is no assurance of confidentiality, there is a need to warn the participants before they agree to participate in the research (Cohen and Arieli, 2011, p. 431). Together with confidentiality, the privacy of the information obtained from the participants should be ensured.
Protection of the participants is another ethical consideration that has been given weight in this study. The primary responsibility of any research is to safeguard the participants from any mental and physical harm in the course of research. In this case, it is a requirement that the risk of harm should not exceed the ordinary life of the participant. This idea implies that the participants need not be exposed to the risks that are bigger than the ones faced in their normal life (Cohen and Arieli, 2011, p. 432). Also, this stud involves children who must be protected, and caution had to be practiced during the discussion of the results with their teachers or parents or any other acting as a loco parentis. This aspect is needful because the evaluative statements can be carrying the weight that is not intended for them.
Results and Discussion
Results
In the section of the background of the participants, participant R, who is a male and 4.4 years, showed a low ability of understanding the English language. This participant can listen and also respond to explanations and instructions given in the classroom where non-verbal illustrations and cues are involved. He is also able to read to the read the birthday chat since he can spot dates in December when asked about whose birthday was in that month. On the other hand, his mathematics ability was tested and was found to be able to select a few numbers of the objects from a given group when asked to do so. His counting ability only goes up to five, evidenced by the way he can recite number from one to five. He also has an understanding of the language of size such as small and big.
In the middle ability of English language group, there were two participants, where one was named Y, a female aged 4.3 years and the other one was S, also a female but aged 3.8 years. Y’s English language ability was measured by finding out whether she could listen and respond perfectly to the classroom explanations and instructions. She appears not to be hesitant to utter some English words and also learns new terms very quickly and has the ability to use them when communicating. Notably, Y understands complex sentences. When testing her mathematics ability, she could read and count to ten and she could also count from one to five using fingers. On the other hand, S listens to others and also responds to simple instructions as well as follows directions. Her ability is also evident in the fact that she can understand the use of the objects. While taking her mathematics test, she could count from one to five on her own and to ten when helped by the teacher.
In the category of the English language high ability, the participant named A, a male aged 4.3 years, was tested. His ability to understand the English language was evident in the fact that he could understand simple conversations made in English and could also respond using the sentences that are simple in English. Furthermore, A can also note the difference between the sizes of the objects like big and small. This understanding is also reflected in his mathematics ability where he can count up to ten verbally and to fifteen when he uses fingers. He can also accurately match the quantity and numeral.
In the sequence of counting lessons case example, three lessons were conducted. The observations made in the first lesson for counting the ten teddies was that all the learners who were in the high and middle ability of English language group could count the objects from one to ten and match the quantity and numeral. This group also showed an ability to comprehend questions that were not familiar such as “Can you split the teddies into two groups? R, belonging to the low ability group, was found to take longer time to accomplish the task because he needed visual explanation to gain an understanding o f the term “split.” Also, despite Y being unsure at the start, she got a better understanding when a verbal explanation was given. The time that each participant took in performing the task is presented in Table 1 below.
Table 1: Lesson 1: Ten Teddies.
| English Language Ability | Duration (Minutes) |
| Low Ability, R | 18 |
| Middle Ability, Y | 10 |
| Middle Ability, S | 8 |
| High Ability, A | 5 |
Using Table 1 above, the graph of the time taken to accomplish the task was plotted against the ability of each participant as shown in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1: The durations to accomplish the task at each participant with low, middle, and high English Language Ability.
In Lesson two, the duration taken by every participant having high, low, and middle ability of English is depicted in Table 2 and Figure 2 below. The bars indicate that participant A had a high ability of the Englsh language ability and took fewer minutes (8 minutes) as compared to the middle ability category (10 minutes for both Y and S) and the low ability group with participant R (20 minutes).
Table 2: Lesson 2: Counting of Elephants
| English Language Ability | Duration (Minutes) |
| Low Ability, R | 20 |
| Middle Ability, Y | 10 |
| Middle Ability, S | 10 |
| High Ability, A | 8 |
Figure 2: The time taken to complete the counting by every participant in low, middle, and high English group
In Lesson 3, which comprised counting snakes and ladders, the results for R, S, Y, and A were provided. While R could not count up to twenty in English and lacked an understanding of the rules of counting, Y and S counted to twenty and could also count to 30 when helped by adults. Additionally, A could count up to 30 on his own and also identified the highest number of dice as six with ease. In general, all the participants could count the objects up to ten , where participant A with a high ability counted to 30 and the middle ability pupils Y and S counted to 20 objects.
Analysis and Evaluation of the Results
The main question that this research seeks to address is the part that the English language plays in counting. The first step to address the question was to examine the background of the participants based on the low, middle, and high ability of English language groups. The low ability participant, R, indicated that a little understanding of the language results in the low counting ability. This finding shows that a child who has low understanding cannot interpret numerals and quantities well as compared to the one who has higher knowledge like the high ability participant A (Rousselle and Noel, 2008, p. 544). On the other hand, the middle group depicts that the students who have moderate knowledge of English language can count more numbers on their own those belonging to the low ability group. Furthermore, the students who have high ability of understanding the language can count most of the numbers as compared to the other two groups. This scenario depicts that such students can clean English quicker.
Also, the results of the sequence counting lesson reveal that the English low ability learners learn counting among other concepts related to Mathematics at slower rate as compared to the other categories. For instance, this idea is evident in the first bars in Figures 1 and 2 for the low ability R participant who takes longer time, 18 minutes in Table 1 and 20 minutes in Table 2. This evidence correlates with the published results that low understanding of English leads to lower counting ability among the students (Butterworth, 2004, p. 3). Similarly, the longer time indicates that the performance of the task by such students is slower as opposed to the other groups. Also, R has expressed the need for a visual explanation when learning new Mathematics concepts. The performance of such students in class seems to be poor because they have no understanding of the rules of counting. For instance, the participant R could not count in an orderly manner or rather jumped the numbers. For the middle group students, they have proved to learn at a higher pace unlike the low ability group of participants. This result shows that the performance of the participant s Y and S was moderated in comparison with the low ability category. They only require verbal explanation to make gain an understanding of counting as well as other aspects of Mathematics.
Further, high ability learners seemed to pick up quickly as opposed to the first two groups, the low and middle ability group. In this case, the performance of such learners is higher based on the higher knowledge they have in English. Another reason for the best performance in this category is that these students understand the rules of counting because they know where begin reckoning from and when to move the next number in the higher position. In addition to this reason, the participant A has a quick understanding of the new concepts as compared to the other groups.
Based on the above discussion, the English language plays a vital role in the learning speed of Mathematics among the young children aged between 3.8 years and 4.4 years. The evidence is clear in the fact those with a better understanding of the objectives through performance can accomplish the activities faster and can also utilize the mathematical concepts taught using English during the communication of their understanding (Butterworth, 2004, p. 46). These results of this research compare with the current and wider researcher on this topic which indicates that higher understanding of English language boosts the counting skills of a student (Donlan et al., 2007, p. 4). However, one limitation of this study is that it has not placed emphasis on how the understanding of the English language varies based on the gender, where male and females of the same age are tested. The approach that will need to be used is to make the sample size bigger than the one the one used in this research so as to include the issue of gender in the analysis.
Conclusion
The English language plays a critical purpose in the learning speed of Mathematics during early years of children between 3.8 years and 4.4 years. Four children from Nursery school were used in this study within the range of the years mentioned above. The findings were that the students with a higher ability to understand the language could learn counting skills and other aspects of Math rapidly as opposed to those with low ability. Since the study did not consider the ability of understanding based on gender, further research is needed taking into account this aspect to provide a better understanding of the subject.
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Appendix
Appendix 1 – Participants’ Background
The participants have been grouped by their English language ability, not their Mathematics ability.
Participant 1–English Low Ability
| Name: R | Gender: Male | Age: 4.4 years |
| English Ability R can listen and respond to classroom instructions and explanations where there are non-verbal cues and illustrations. R listens attentively either one to one or in whole class teaching time. R is beginning to orally copy familiar expressions and echoes words and phrases, such as “ok”. R tries hard to use gestures along with single words to respond or indicate meaning. He pointed to the birthday chat when we were talking about whose birthday are in December.
Mathematics Ability Rcan select a small number of objects from a group when asked. He can pick up two books when it is library day. R can recite some numbers in sequence and enjoys number songs, such as “One two three four five”. He is beginning to represent numbers using fingers. He said “R, one” when he was playing with a car. R can count with an adult and say the total. R knows some language of size. He occasionally uses “big” and “small” during independent learning time. | ||
Participant 2 –English Middle Ability
| Name: Y | Gender: Female | Age: 4.3 years |
| English Ability Ylistens and responds well to classroom instructions and explanations. Yis not hesitant to speak English, she learns new words very rapidly and is able to use them when communicating. Y understands simple conversational English and she usually responds with one-word answer in English, such as “circle” “ball” ”dinosaur” and “red”. She also uses non-verbal gestures to respond or indicate meaning when she does not know how to express herself in English. Y has gained a good understanding of complex sentences.
Mathematics Ability
Y shows interests in numbers. She can orally count to 10. Y can read numbers 1-5 and count to 5 whilst using her fingers to keep count. She is able to match numeral 1-5 and quantity correctly.Y is beginning to make comparisons between quantities. She can tell which group has more objects and which one has less without counting them. Y can use shapes for a purposeful task and shows awareness of the similarities of shapes.
| ||
Participant 3 –English Middle Ability
| Name: S | Gender: Female | Age: 3.8 years |
| English Ability
S is able to listen to others one to one or in small groups, when conversation interests her. She is able to follow directions and responds to simple instructions e.g. to get or put away a toy. She understands use of objects (e.g. what do we use to cut things?) and will collect classroom objects when asked to. She enjoys rhyming and rhythmic activities and knows all our class songs and rhymes we have learnt. She is often found singing them during her play or playing outside. Recently she particularly enjoyed the story Goldilocks and answered who the characters were very clearly “daddy bear, mummy bear and baby bear”.Ssometimes gives meaning to marks she has drawn and painted. S does prefer more active play but will try hard when working on a piece of work directed by the teacher.
Mathematics Ability
Senjoys singing all of our number songs including “1,2,3,4,5 Once I Caught A Fish Alive”, “There Are 7 Days In The Week” and “10 Little Monkeys Jumping On The Bed”. S Shows an interest in numerals in the environment and will wok with the teacher when asked and repeat the English names and vocabulary for mathematical concepts. She can count 1-5 confidently and 1-10 when prompted by the teacher. S has shown an interest in shape and space by playing with shapes or making arrangements with objects. When we looked at shapes, she repeated all the English names including, circle, triangle, square and rectangle.
| ||
Participant 4 – English High Ability
| Name: A | Gender: Male | Age: 4.3 years |
| English Ability
A understands simple conversational English and can usually respond with a simple sentence answer in English, such as “I don’t want to” and “I like dinosaur” . A enjoys singing ‘head shoulders knees and toes’, ‘wheels on the bus’ and our daily routine songs. A has gained a good understanding of complex sentences. A has also developed an understanding of simple concepts; he is able to use descriptive words such as “big”, and “small” to describe the objects he has found. A is beginning to understand “how” and “why” questions. A has written an invitation to a ball when we were learning about ‘Sleeping Beauty’. He explained clearly what he had drawn in English “This is mummy. This is my house. Welcome to play in my house.”
Mathematics Ability
A shows great interests in numbers and puzzles. He can read numbers 1-10 and count to 15 whilst using his fingers to keep count. He is able to match numeral and quantity correctly. A enjoys splitting objects in different ways. A can make comparisons between quantities and use the language of size. A can use shapes for a purposeful task and shows awareness of the similarities of shapes. | ||
Appendix 2 – A Sequence of Counting Lessons
| Lesson1- “Ten Little Teddies” |
| Date: Monday,17th April 21017 |
| Learning Objectives: · Countobjects to 10. · Match numeral and quantity correctly. · Splits objects in different ways. |
| Resources: Nursery song “Ten Little Teddies” Teddy bear counting toys and number cards
|
| What to do: 1. Practice counting to 10 by singing “Ten Little Teddies”. 2. Place 10 teddy bears on the carpet. I will demonstrate counting the hearts on teddy’s body first. Then ask students to count. 3. Put number cards 1-10 randomly on the carpet. Each Student will be given a teddy with different quantities of hearts. Students will be asked to put the teddy on the matched card. (eg. The 7 hearts teddy matches number 7 card.) 4. Explain what “split” means. Students will be encouraged to split the teddies in their own way and explain why. They might split by colours and quantity of hearts. |
| Observation: All students in middle ability group and high ability group can count objects to 10 and match the numeral to quantity. They also can understand unfamiliar question “Can you split the teddies into two groups?” Y was not sure at the beginning, but when verbal explanation was given she understood. Student R from low ability spent a bit longer time to complete the activity. He required visual explanation to understand “split”. From the next lesson, I will carry on with counting and splitting activity with coloured elephant counters. In addition, I will observe their understanding of comparison. Low Ability-Rtried very hard in this activity. He counted hearts on each teddy, but they were not always correct. He did skip counting and repetitive counting. I demonstrated R the one-to-one correspondence and told him to slow down when he was counting. He found it was a little challenge to count objects to 10. R was not sure about the numerals 6,7,8 and 9. He matched the teddies and cards correctly, but it was because he could match the heart patterns. R didn’t understand what he supposed to do when I asked him to split ten teddies into two groups. I verbally explained “split” to him but he didn’t get it. So I used colour shapes to explain what “split” means (I grouped red shapes and yellow shapes). Then I asked R if he knew what to do with the teddies. He said “Yes” and split them by colours.
R spent 18 minutes to finish the activity.
Middle Ability-S counted the hearts to 10 correctly. She was able to recognise all the numbers 1-10. S matched cards to teddy’s hearts independently. S split 10 teddy bears into two groups when I asked her. She put two brown bears and three orange bears in each group. She said “One, two(brown bears). One two three(orange bears).”
S spent 8 minutes to finish the activity.
Middle Ability-Y was not hesitant to say all number names when she looked at the cards. She matched all teddies to the cards independently. Y looked at me puzzled when I asked her to split the teddies into two groups. I explained “Split” verbally and she understood the meaning. Y split the teddies by colours, “Same (colour)”.
Y spent 10 minutes to finish the activity.
High Ability- A sat down, started counting teddy bears’ hearts by himself. He recognised numbers 1-20 and found it’s easy to match the numerals to quantities. A split teddies into two groups by colour when I asked him. Then I asked him to find another way to split the teddies. He understood the question and thought for a while. A put nine hearts in a group and asked for clarification “Like this? ” I said “You can do it in this way.” A carried on putting eight hearts in another group and six hearts for the last group.
A spent 5 minutes to finish the activity.
|
| Lesson2- Counting Elephants |
| Date:Tuesday,18th April 21017 |
| Learning Objectives: · Count objects to 20. · Splits objects in different ways. · Recognise “more” and “less”.
|
| Resources: Elephant counters Number cards 1-10 and 11-20 |
| What to do: 1. Use elephant counters to practice counting 1-10(Low ability R) and 11-20(Middle ability S and Y, High ability A).Ask students to select the certain amount of elephants according to the number I say (eg,“May I have 6 green elephants please?” The student needs to collect 6 green elephants.). Students will also select the right amount of elephants according to the number cards they see.(If the card is number 16, the student has to place 16 elephants besides the card.) 2. Once the student has put two sets of elephant counters on the table, they will be asked to compare the quantities. (Which set has less/more elephants or are they the same?) 3. Split elephants in their own way. They can divide them by colours, sizes or a certain amount. |
| Observation: All children showed interests in counting and sorting. When I asked them to select a certain amount of elephants, they all counted them before giving to me. They can give out the correct amount of elephants by looking at the number cards they already knew. The high ability and middle ability can split the elephants when verbal explanation was given. The low ability needed demonstration from the teacher. They all showed understanding of the concept “more” and “less” after I taught them.
For the next lesson, I will introduce snake and ladder game to them. I will observe if they can apply their counting skills to a new task.
Low Ability-R recognised numerals 1-5. He can say the total of 3 elephants without counting them. R selected 5 elephants when I said “Can I have 5 elephants please?” When R was given number 8 which he doesn’t know, he placed elephants on each octopus on the card and counted them correctly. R used “big” and “small” to compare two sets of elephants. I asked him “Do you mean this group has more elephants?” he said “Yes”. I explained to R by pointing to the objects “This group has 5 elephants. That group has 3 elephants. 5 is more than 3”. We practiced “more” and “less” several times. By the end, R can point to “more” and “less”. R needed demonstration when I asked him to split them into groups. I made examples for him, split elephants by colours and sizes. Then R sorted them by colours.
R spent 20 minutes to finish the activity.
Middle Ability-S counted 14 elephants to me when asked. She added 1 more to 14 when I asked for 15 elephants. S can count to 20 with a little help. S understood the concept of “more” and “less” without explanation. S lined up all the elephants when I asked her to split them into groups. I told her she can split them by colours and sizes or other ways. She lined up all the small elephants, 4 medium sized red elephants in a line, 3 medium sized blue elephants in another line and all big yellow elephants in a line.
S spent 10 minutes to finish the activity.
Middle Ability-Y can select 15 elephants when asked. Y can count the correct amount when she looked at the number cards. She occasionally skipped 16 when she was counting. She can add 5 more elephants on 15 to make 20 and take away 2 from 20 to make 18. Y can point to “more” and “less”. She orally copied “This is more” and “This is less”. Y can split elephants by colours. When I told her she can sort them by sizes, she did it correctly.
S spent 10 minutes to finish the activity.
High Ability- A can count 20 elephants either by hearing the numbers or looking at the number cards. He can add 4 more to 14 to make 18 and take away 5 to make 13. A used mandarin to compare the quantities. After I explained in English, he can point to “more” and “less”. He also can set up two groups to represent “more” and “less”. A first grouped elephants by colours, then he did it by sizes. The third time he put 3 big red elephants in a group, 3 medium blue elephants in a group and 3 small blue elephants in a group.
A spent 8minutes to finish the activity. |
| Lesson3- Snakes and ladders |
| Date:Wednesday,19th April 21017
|
| Learning Objectives: · Counts to 20. · Can recognise highest number. · Understands game rules and responsesto instructions. |
| Resources: A counter for each child A large dice A format of snakes and ladders board game |
| What to do: 1. Show the children the format for the board game and read the numbers. 2. Discuss which number is the highest. After each child has chosen a counter and placed it at the start of the game ask the children to decide the order in which they will play the game. Each child will throw the dice and the child with the highest number starts first, followed by the next highest number and so on. To help them remember whose turn it is, children can change places so that they are sitting in the correct order. 3. Explain the rules to the children. They will play the basic snake and ladder first. Once they are familiar with the basic rules, I will tell them to take a step back when they meet a bee. 4. Let the children play the game independently.
|
| Observation: We had a trial for the first time. Then we played the normal snakes and ladders again. After that, we added one more rule, take a step back when meet a bee. All students listened carefully to the instructions. They can take turns to have a go. Student A was the first one to say 6 is the highest number on a dice. Then Y said 5 is after 6. It took S a while to understand it. R didn’t get it when lesson finished. R was not able to follow the rules because he didn’t understand the English instructions though he listened very carefully.
Low Ability-R listened and observed what others were doing very carefully. He was not able to count to 20 in English. He didn’t understand the rules and instructions. R counted steps backwards and skipped some numbers when he was counting. R didn’t show acknowledge of the concept of highest number.
R didn’t understand the rules and was not able to count to 20.
Middle Ability-S and Y can count to 20. They can count to 30 with adult’s support. S and Y followed the rules when playing the game. S sometimes forgot to take a step back when she bumped to a bee. Both of them demonstrated understanding of highest number after A said 6 is the highest.
High Ability- A can count to 30 by himself. He said 6 is the highest when I asked “Who got the highest number?” A understood the rules because he knew where to start counting and when he could jump to a higher number. He took a step back when he met a bee.
A can count to 30. He understood the game once verbal instruction was given.
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