Early Years

Is practicing number writing considered doing math?

04/03/2025|3 min read

Is practicing number writing considered doing math?

Hi!

Today, I want to talk to you about something we constantly work on in Early Childhood Education and that is generally given a lot of importance: number writing.

Number writing isn’t what it seems

We often think of number writing as a simple stroke that students must learn. In reality, however, it is a complex process that goes far beyond that. Before students can write numbers correctly, they first need to develop skills such as visual-motor coordination, stroke direction, and the association between quantity and its symbolic representation.

However, it is important to remember that the development of graphomotor skills is not a mathematical concept in itself. Math can create favorable contexts for practicing these skills, but endlessly repeating number writing, as has been traditionally done, is not the same as doing math.

In fact, despite these never-ending repetitions, many children reach the age of 6 and still write some numbers backward. Why? Because the correct way to write these numbers does not only depend on the number of repetitions, but rather on the level of maturity of other skills and abilities developed beforehand.

How do we build numbers with meaning?

The construction of the concept of number is a broad process that encompasses knowledge of a very diverse nature. Being able to read and write numbers is only a small part of this great construct, and not the main one.

This is why it is essential for numbers to be present in the classroom naturally—on number cards, on the calendar, etc.—and linked to meaningful situations, such as score charts or songs. Students should also have the opportunity to represent them in real-life contexts using different forms of expressions—drawings, words, or symbols—without the “correct” representation becoming the focus of mathematical work at these ages.

Instead of focusing on the mechanical repetition of strokes, students should be introduced to number writing through free movement and, whenever possible, in functional and meaningful situations.

Dive deeper into this content with the following blog article, where Mequè Edo explores the topic in depth and shares strategies to help us, as teachers, support this process in a thoughtful and effective way.

Thanks for reading — I hope you find it helpful 🙂

Warm wishes!

Judith, from Innovamat

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