Young Children’s Interpretation of Multidigit Number Names: From Emerging Competence to Mastery

This study assessed whether a sample of two hundred seven 3- to 7-year-olds could interpret multidigit numerals using simple identification and comparison tasks. Contrary to the view that young children do not understand place value, even 3-year-olds demonstrated some competence on these tasks. Ceiling was reached by first grade. When training was provided, there were significant gains, suggesting that children can improve their partial understandings with input. Findings add to what is known about the processes of symbolic development and the incidental learning that occurs prior to schooling, as well as specifying more precisely what place value misconceptions remain as children enter the educational system. Research has established that most children enter school with basic counting skills and a firm conceptual understanding of numbers up to 10. From an early age, children can name, match, order, and calculate with these quantities (for a review, see Mix, Huttenlocher, & Levine, 2002). This early competence provides a strong foundation upon which to build conventional skills and most children fare well as long as single-digit number facts are involved. However, when multidigit numbers are introduced, even competent children struggle— struggles that manifest themselves not only in weak place value concepts, but also in rote, error-prone application of algorithms for multidigit calculatio