The Beginning of Probabilistic Reasoning in Early Childhood Education

We present a synthesis of the research on up to 7 year-old children's probabilistic reasoning. After a short allusion to Piaget and Inhelder and Fischbein research, these and other investigations are reviewed. We analyse the children's understanding of chance, probabilistic language, identification and enumeration of possibilities, probability comparison strategies, and combinatorial reasoning. Teachers sand families can use this synthesis in the early education of probabilistic reasoning, which will benefit the child in his or her development, later understanding of probability and decision making under uncertainty.