How to Teach Counting to Preschoolers: The Stages and How to Fix Mistakes

Pick three small things your child likes today, maybe cars, grapes or spoons. Line them up, touch each one as you both say a number, then say the total out loud: “one, two, three. Three cars.”

The steps below suit ages 3 to 5, but ages are only a rough guide. Children learn to count at very different times, and that’s normal.

What are the three parts of counting?

Counting looks like one skill, but a child has to learn three things that fit together:

1. The words in order. One, two, three, four, always in the same order. This is called the stable-order idea, and it’s the part children pick up from songs.
2. One word for each object. Every thing gets exactly one number word. None skipped, none counted twice. This is one-to-one correspondence.
3. The last word tells how many. If the count ends on “five”, there are five. This is cardinality.

The Common Core kindergarten standard for counting (K.CC.B.4) spells out the same ideas: say the number names in the standard order, pair each object with one and only one number name, and understand that the last number name said tells the number of objects. It adds that the total stays the same however the objects are arranged or whichever one you start with.

A child can be solid on one part and shaky on another. So the fix for a counting mistake depends on which part needs work.

Step 1: number words in order

Many children start by reciting. “One, two, three, four, five” comes out like a song, often with a number missing or swapped. This is rote counting.

Sing counting songs, do finger rhymes and count the stairs as you climb. Say the words with your child rather than at them, and if a number goes missing, just say the whole run again together. Once in a while, keep going a little past the point where your child usually stops.

Reciting is the base, but it isn’t counting yet. A child who can say the words to 20 may still count three bears as “one, two, five”. The words have to be linked to things.

Step 2: one word for each object

Now your child matches each word to one object: one touch, one word. Start with 3 objects in a straight row, so it’s clear where the count starts and ends. Model it at half speed, because the hand and the voice need to move together.

Slide each counted object to the other side of the table, so you can both see which ones are done. When 3 feels easy, try 4 or 5. After that, try a small scattered pile instead of a row, which is harder to keep track of.

For children under 3, the touch-and-say games in our math activities for toddlers are a gentler start.

Step 3: the last number tells how many

This is the big idea, cardinality. A child counts four blocks perfectly, you ask “so how many?”, and they count again. Or they give a number that has nothing to do with the count, because “how many?” doesn’t yet connect to the counting they just did.

In a classic set of experiments with 2 and 3 year olds, only the older children usually answered “how many?” with the last number they had counted. When asked to hand over a number of items, the younger children succeeded only with one and sometimes two, and never counted to solve it. The author concluded that children learn this idea at roughly 3 and a half years of age.

Repeating the last number isn’t proof on its own, though. A later study of 2 to 4 year olds found that many children answer “how many” with the last word of the count without yet understanding how counting works.

A better check is the “give me” game, the same kind of task the researchers used. Put a pile of 10 small things in front of your child and ask, “Can you give me four?” A child who has the idea will count out four and stop. A child who doesn’t may simply grab some.

How to help:

• Always say the total after counting. “One, two, three. Three apples.” Stress the last word.
• Play “give me” with small numbers. Ask for 2, then 3, then 4.
• Name small sets at a glance. One study found that 3 and 4 year olds link the words “one” to “four” to small sets before they learn the counting principles. Seeing a small amount without counting is called subitizing. We suggest naming small sets often: two shoes, three ducks, four wheels.

How do you fix common counting mistakes?

Here are four common counting mistakes. Each one points to the part of counting that needs practice.

Skip the “no, that’s wrong”. Count again together, slowly, so your child sees the fix, then let them try the same set on their own.

Try it: can your child catch Pip’s mistake?

In the game below, Pip the owl counts a set of objects out loud. Sometimes Pip counts right. Sometimes Pip skips one, counts one twice, mixes up the numbers or says the wrong total at the end. Your child decides which one happened.

Watching someone else count lets your child check the counting without being the one checked, and it’s fun to catch Pip out. Start with “Up to 5” and sit next to your child for the first few rounds. Say the numbers with Pip. It suits ages 4 to 6; for a 3 year old, just watch together and count along.

What to expect between 3 and 5

There is no fixed timetable, only a loose picture from the research and the standards above. The studies in Step 3 suggest that small numbers come first, and that the last-number idea arrives at roughly 3 and a half.

For the top of this age range, the Common Core gives an end-of-kindergarten marker. It expects children to count to 100 by ones and by tens, count forward from a given number, and count up to 20 things in a row or up to 10 scattered things to answer “how many?”.

If your child is far from this picture, keep playing. A 4 year old who enjoys counting but still recounts when you ask “how many?” is a good fit for a few weeks of “give me” games. If you have concerns about your child’s development in general, your pediatrician or your child’s teacher is the right person to ask.

For more ideas sorted by age, see our math activities for preschoolers.

What comes after counting?

Once counting objects feels easy, try counting on from a number other than one: “We have 4. Here’s one more. Four… five!” Then compare two piles to see which has more.

Moving a piece square by square on a board is counting practice too, and our math board games post shows how to make one at home. For ages 5 to 6, the kindergarten math games cover counting on, comparing and adding within 10.

Real objects come first at this age, since counting is about touching and moving things. We suggest a few minutes of real counting on most days, and stopping while it’s still fun.

If you’d like a short practice session as well, Math Learner is a math practice app for children aged 3 to 10. Its Numbers world starts with counting bubbles, then matching a number to a quantity, what comes next in a sequence, and which number is bigger. Each level has eight questions, a wrong answer shows the right one, and the first 15 levels of each world are free, one lesson a day. It has no ads, no account and no tracking tools, and you can download it here to play a level next to your child.