The Give-N Task for Assessing Child Number Knowledge

Children learn very early (often as young as 2 years old) to recite the number-word list in order (Fuson, 1988). But at the beginning, the words are merely placeholders—children recite the list without knowing what the individual number words mean. Over time, children fill in the words with meaning, one at a time and in order (Carey, 2009; Sarnecka & Lee, 2009). The child’s progress on this front is called their number-knower level, or just knower level. A child who does not yet know ...