Perceptual Subitizing: Early Childhood Classroom

Subitizing is an important component to incorporate into an early childhood classroom. According to the Subitizing article, “Subitizing is “instantly seeing how many.” From a Latin word meaning suddenly, subitizing is the direct perceptual apprehension of the numerosity of a group” (p. 1). During the first and second half of the century, researchers believed in different idea on how subitizing impacts children. At first counting was believed to not imply a true understanding of number but that subitizing did. However, by the second half of the century, educator and researchers began developing did ideas about subitizing. Some believed that “subitizing was a more “basic” skill than counting” and others believed that “children develop subitizing later, as a shortcut to counting”(p.1). …show more content…
According to the article, “perceptual subitizing is closet to the original definition of subitizing: recognizing a number without using other mathematical processes,” while “conceptual subitizing plays an advanced- organizing role” to help children learn through “finger patterns, rhythmic patterns, and spatial-auditory patterns” (p. 2). Young children use perceptual subitizing at first when making units for counting, but they eventually develop conceptual subitizing skills allowing them the ability to count and use patterns. Quick- image activities through the conceptual process will also help the students with visualization component and estimation skills. By providing a variety of patterns the students are able to view each number in a different way while “keeping