LET’S TALK NUMBERS: THE IMPORTANCE OF

ocabulary knowledge is as essential to learning mathematics as it is to learning how to read. In language arts, mathematical words conjure up graphic representations of the objects they label. But when it comes to abstract mathematical concepts, words describe activities or relationships that often lack a visual counterpart. Yet studies show that children grasp the idea of quantity, as well as other relational concepts, from a very early age (Dehaene, 1997). As children develop their capacity for understanding, language, and its vocabulary, becomes a vital cognitive link between a child’s natural sense of number and order and conceptual learning. Children learn mathematics best by using it, and understanding the language of math gives students the skills they need to think about, talk about, and assimilate new math concepts as they are introduced. For example, as students develop conditional knowl-edge, knowing how to label and define objects—such as the difference between triangles, rectangles, and polygons—is essential to manipulating those objects. The language of math, in this case, is critical to helping children develop the means to acquire new concepts