Editing Numeracy (section)

==Age==
Age is accounted for when discussing the development of numeracy in children.<ref name="MelhuishPhan2008"/> Children under the age of 5 have the best opportunity to absorb basic numeracy skills.<ref name="MelhuishPhan2008" /> After the age of seven, achievement of basic numeracy skills become less influential.<ref name="MelhuishPhan2008" /> For example, a study was conducted to compare the reading and mathematical abilities between children of ages five and seven, each in three different mental capacity groups (underachieving, average, and overachieving). The differences in the amount of knowledge retained were greater between the three different groups aged five than between the groups aged seven. This reveals that those of younger ages have an opportunity to retain more information, like numeracy. According to Gelman and Gallistel in The Child's Understanding of Number, 'children as young as 2 years can accurately judge numerosity provided that the numerosity is not larger than two or three'. Children as young as three have been found to understand elementary mathematical concepts.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hughes|first=Martin|title=Children and Number|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|year=1986|isbn=978-0-631-13581-4}}</ref> Kilpatrick and his colleagues state 'most preschoolers show that they can understand and perform simple addition and subtraction by at least 3 years of age'.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Jeremy Kilpatrick |author2=Jane Swafford |author3=Bradford Findell |title=Adding + it up: helping children learn mathematics|date=2001|publisher=National Academy Press|isbn=0-309-06995-5|oclc=248386156}}</ref> Lastly, it has been observed that pre-school children benefit from their basic understanding of 'counting, reading and writing of numbers, understanding of simple addition and subtraction, numerical reasoning, classifying of objects and shapes, estimating, measuring, [and the] reproduction of number patterns'.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Ewers-Rogers|first1=Jennifer|last2=Cowan|first2=Richard|date=January 1996|title=Children as Apprentices to Number|journal=Early Child Development and Care|volume=125|issue=1|pages=15–25|doi=10.1080/0300443961250102|issn=0300-4430}}</ref>