CHILDRENS KNOWLEDGE OF TEEN QUANTITIES AS TENS AND ONES - COMPARISONSOF CHINESE, BRITISH, AND AMERICAN KINDERGARTNERS

Three studies were conducted to examine the effects of individual diff erences and language differences on children's understanding of teen q uantities (11 less than or equal to n less than or equal to 19) as cou nted cardinal tens and ones (embedded-ten cardinal understanding). At age 4, most Chinese children, using named-ten number words (e.g., 12 i s said as ''ten two''), did not show such understanding on a task in w hich y quantities were added to 10 quantities. At age 5, half the chil dren of average or above intelligence who had high role-counting seque nces (M = 90) did show such understanding; those with lower role-count ing sequences did not. English-speaking 5-year-old children in England and in the United States, whose teen words obfuscate the lens and one s, showed no evidence of understanding teen quantities as cardinal len s and ones.