The Count

Over the past few weeks Henry has made big strides in his ability to count and understand numbers. Watching the process unfold has been fascinating. It started with our habit of saying "five more minutes" and holding up five fingers when we need to transition from one activity to another. At first this was just an arbitrary verbal cue; we could have said "purple jello kitten" and it would have had the same effectiveness--i.e., it wasn't like we were actually counting minutes, we just needed a consistent way to tell him he'd soon have to stop what he was doing. But Henry started mimicking us, saying "five more minutes?" while holding up 5 fingers. That was the first connection. Pretty soon he started asking about other numbers. Tom and I spent a lot of time showing him how to count to five on his fingers, and saying "four" while showing four fingers, etc. Henry practiced actually holding up the right combinations, which took some work just in terms of dexterity (figuring out that he could use his thumb to hold down his pinkie was key to nailing the number 3). Anyway, I think that the tactile element of holding up fingers while saying the number formed a real bridge in his mind between the name of each number and its value. I now feel like he understands numbers and counting in a way that he doesn't yet grasp with letters. I mean, he can sing the alphabet song and identify some letters when prompted, but he's a long way from decoding the whole system of letters/sounds/words/meaning. But it really does look like the connection is coming together with numbers. He now notices page numbers in his books and likes to talk about them. He's starting to grasp the idea that you can put two numbers together and make a different number (e.g. 2 & 3 is "23"). He can count items on a page (although he's not 100% accurate all the time). It sounds like small stuff, and a year from now I'm sure he'll be counting to some high number and back without thinking twice about it, but for now, watching him work it out is remarkable.

It still boggles my mind to realize that 10 months ago, Henry could say only the most basic two-and three-word phrases. Now he babbles away about anything and everything, telling stories complete with narration and dialog, and even corrects his mother's pronunciation of the Latin names of various dinosaurs. The changes happen so quickly. It's been a remarkable year.