I have been questioned several times about my success with the math program. When people see a two-year-old child (and a one-year-old) be able to instantly tell the difference between a card with 18 and 19 dot on it, they seem to instantly assume, "Well he's not really seeing the actual number of dots; he's just memorized the pattern that the dots are in."
At one point I wondered the same thing myself. I had to test this theory to see if he really was perceiving the true numbers, or if it was just pattern memorization.
A while back I tried making another set of numbers one - ten to see if he'd still be able to do it. When I presented them with the new cards, he didn't even act like they were different! He still got the answers right every time!
But today the fact was clearly validated: Is he just recognizing some kind of pattern in the dots, or is he actually able to perceive the true numbers?
A little while ago I made Hunter a book with different numbers of cars in them. I never ended up showing it to him, but today I got it out. Now mind you, he had NEVER EVEN SEEN THIS BOOK BEFORE. I asked him, "Let's find fifteen!" and I flipped through the book until I found it. I held up the page that had fifteen on it, (eighteen was on the other side) and asked, "Where's fifteen, Hunter?"
Without missing a beat he immediately and energetically exclaimed, "Right there!" pointing to the page with fifteen silver cars on it.
He really can perceive actual numbers! He knows that "fifteen" or "ten" or "thirty nine" is an amount, a quantity, not a certain pattern on a card.
Hunter is 2 years, 10 months old
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