What age are kids typically able to understand basic subtraction and addition?
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Anonymous
| Just interested, because I think my kid may be beyond the norm. I'm just talking about very basic adding and subtracting numbers under 10. And also wondering about normal kids, not inviting DCUM bragging about your little geniuses. Thanks! |
Anonymous
| I would say K-1 is normal. |
Anonymous
|
"Very basic adding and subtracting numbers under 10"
4 yrs old. |
Anonymous
| My "normal" kid started around 4.5, just turned 5 and is getting better. |
Anonymous
| I would say between 3 and 5 is normal. |
Anonymous
|
Depends what you mean by "understand", it's a process.
3 year old -- can understand combing and taking apart within 2 or 3. For example, a 3 year old can understand, without counting, that if they have 1 cookie, and you give them another cookie they now have 2, or that if they have 1 cookie and they eat it they won't have a cookie anymore. 4 year old -- can act out a simple "some some more story" or "some some went away" story with manipulatives. Can add 2 numbers shown on dice. Can use counting to figure out what is "one more than" or "one less than" a given number. Kindergartener -- Understand formal ways of representing addition and subtraction with symbols: 5 frames and 10 frames, standard arithmetic notation, drawing symbols to represent items (e.g. solving a word problem involving crayons by drawing lines to represent crayons), begins to move away from needing concrete manipulatives to solve problems -- to fingers, counting strategies in their head, subitizing (e.g. knowing that 4 looks like 2 plus 2 because a 4 on the dice is 2 rows of 2, and generalize that to knowing First Grade -- Developing fluency with addition and subtraction, understand fact families and moving back and forth between the two operations, understands a wide variety of word problems including those where the starting number and the change are missing. |
Anonymous
| Most of the 4 year olds in my kid's preschool class seem to get addition. And subtraction, but my kid diesn't get subtraction totally yet. |
Anonymous
| My daughter seems to get a lot of it at age 4.5, but not all of it. We've started working on it a few nights a week (in addition to what she's doing in preschool) to get her used to the idea of homework, and also just because I think it's good for her to have some one-on-one instruction vs. the big preschool class. |
Anonymous
Strangely my three year old is really good on subtraction, but it's hit or miss whether he can add correctly. |
Anonymous
| My 6 year old K has been doing great with addition for about a year, she is working on carrying the tens now, and can't make change properly when we play Monopoly. My 4.5 year old can count things up, like how many apples in a picture, or 2 + 2, but wouldn't know 4 + 5. |
Anonymous
| DD could enumerate (1 to 1 count) to about 30 when she was 2.5, so she could also do some very basic addition and subtraction at that time using manipulatives--like two cookies plus two crackers. By the time she was four she could do most addition and subtraction up to 20 in her head. I don't think that is typical, but it is surely possible, and I don't think DD is some math wiz either. |
Anonymous
| I think they can understand the idea around 3.5-4 (the basic idea). My 5 year old could add any single digit numbers to 20 (i.e. 9 + 7) but it would take probably 20 seconds - i.e. it isn't something he has memorized. Same with subtraction. He doesn't get carrying yet - so double digits that require carrying are far off. Not braging - just saying there is huge range... |
Anonymous
| I also think you should be looking at non-computer work to determine if they get it - using an app or other computer or hand held game is not the way to judge it. The range is massive as to what an average (high average to low average) kid can do by 3-4 years old. |
Anonymous
| I would say that anywhere between 3 and 5 falls within normal - depending on personality, strengths and interests. |
Anonymous
In my son's Montessori Kindergarten, all the 5 year olds (except my kid!) could add and subtract quite easily. The teacher would ask: "There should be 35 children in the class, but 5 are absent, so how many are we today?" and the kids could answer without having to count heads. It took my son another year to get it 
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