March 1999, Vol. 5, Issue 7
Subitizing: What Is It? Why Teach It?
Douglas Clements
"Subitizing is a fundamental skill in the development of students' understanding of number" (Baroody 1987, 115). Students can use pattern recognition to discover essential properties of number, such as conservation and compensation. They can develop such capabilities as unitizing, counting on, and composing and decomposing numbers, as well as their understanding of arithmetic and place value-all valuable components of number sense.
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