Kyle, a kindergartner from a low-income family, is shown a set of three black dots on a white mat. His teacher then hides the dots with a small box lid and lays down an additional set of two dots. She pushes the two dots under the cover, one at a time. Kyle must now choose the number of dots “hiding” under the box from a set of four different linear dot pictures. He points to the air and counts the dots that he envisions in his mind: “One, two, three [pausing] four, five,” and then he points to the picture with five dots and says, “Five.”
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