Exploring the Development of Children’s Ordinality Knowledge

Abstract

Children’s understanding for the order of numbers, referred to as ordinality, has been identified as a critical early number skill for children to develop (Lyons et al., 2014; Xu & LeFevre, 2021). However, research on how children’s ordinality knowledge develops is limited. The current study explored the learning trajectory of children’s number word and numeral ordinality knowledge, and predictors of children’s numeral ordinality knowledge. A sample of 94 predominantly White five- to nine-year-old’s (M = 6.89, SD = 0.95) from highly educated households, completed number word and numeral order judgment tasks (i.e., “are the numbers in order from smallest to biggest?”), and a smallest to biggest numeral ordinality task (i.e., “click on the numbers in order from smallest to biggest”), in one synchronous Zoom session. Judging the order of adjacent sequences (e.g., 2-3-4) was easier than judging the order of non-adjacent sequences (e.g., 2-4-6), with no differences in performance for non-adjacent sequences that differed by 2, 3, or unequal intervals. Furthermore, producing the order of numerals was easier than judging the order of numerals. Finally, a strong association was found between children’s number word and numeral ordinality knowledge, and there was no significant difference between children’s number word and numeral ordinality knowledge. Findings suggest the two tasks commonly used to assess numeral ordinality knowledge (i.e., numeral order judgment and smallest to biggest numeral ordinality tasks) may be differentially assessing children’s ordinality knowledge. This study adds important insights into the development of, and potential mechanisms underlying, children’s ordinality knowledge.