Enumeration: Counting Difficulties Are Not Always Related to Numbers

When parents and educators think about numeracy and how to help children’s use of number, they often try to help them to memorise the numbers in order and to ask them to count how many objects are present. This is certainly useful in order to attain the level of numeracy which is important at school, but it is not sufficient. Parents and educators generally pay little attention to the way in which the objects are pointed to in order to give the right number. This chapter will focus on this aspect of numeracy that has been named “enumeration” by researchers in mathematics education (Brousseau in L’enseignement de l’enumeration. International Congress on Mathematical Education, 1984. http://guy-brousseau.com/2297/l%E2%80%99enseignement-de-l%E2%80%99enumeration-1984/; Briand in Rech Didact Math 19:41–76, 1999. https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00494924).