Discovery of Number Sense

Numerosity Module

Neuroscience research seems to indicate that the part of the brain which is related to math, actually has two parts; one which judges how much and the other which judges how many.

Dr B Butterworth, author of “The Mathematical Brain” suggests that there seems to be a “numerosity module” or the "how many" area in our brain specialised for dealing with numerical representations.

Number Sense or Numerosity Sense originates from the “how many” area of the brain.

Discovery of Number Sense

But due to evolutionary reasons, the “how many” area in our brains has not developed as much as the “how much” area.

Until very recently, there was very little awareness of either Number Sense or its importance. Children were supposed to start schooling with almost no prior knowledge of math. All the math, children had to learn, was supposed to be taught at school.

As the world became more technical & digital, the importance of math education was realized. Hence research was undertaken as to why some children find even elementary math concepts very difficult to grasp. The notion of number sense was originally formulated as a way for educators to help students with special needs master the basic arithmetic that, at the time, dominated mathematics instruction.

This led to the discovery of the condition of Dyscalculia which found to cause difficulties in young children even in identifying numbers as small as 1 to 5 perceptually.

The research into the “numerosity module” and the condition of “dyscalculia, led to a better understanding of the concept of number sense, pre-number activities & perceptual numbers.

It is only recently that these ideas have received a lot of attention from math educators and learning psychologists.

Understanding & development of Number Sense has acquired an urgency because of the discovery of its criticality to understanding math.