The Role of Conceptual Subitising in the Development of Foundational Number Sense

Evidence indicates that children with a well-developed number sense are more likely to experience long-term mathematical success than children without. However, number sense has remained an elusive construct. In this chapter, we summarise the development of an eight-dimensional framework categorising what we have come to call foundational number sense or those non-innate number-related competences typically taught during the first years of schooling. We also show, drawing on grade one lessons from Hungary and Sweden, how focused instruction on conceptual subitising, the teaching of children to identify and use easily recognisable groups of objects to structure children’s understanding of number, facilitates children’s acquisition of a range of foundational number sense-related competences.