In Young Children's Counting, Procedures Precede Principles

A substantial body of data on young children's counting is now available. Portions of these data can be explained by social context interpretations, such as those advanced by Elbers, but other parts of the data cannot be. The most urgent need is for models that illuminate how primitive conceptual understanding of cardinality and ordinality contributes to learning of counting procedures, and how experience with the counting procedures, in turn, enriches children's conceptual understanding.