7 | O akville B eaver | T hursday,M arch 10,2022 insidehalton.com VISIT OUR SCHOOL PAGE TO ENROL website: cefa.ca/cefa-find-a-school/oakville/ inquiries: 647-910-CEFA or eighthline@cefa.ca location: 1030 Eighth Line, Oakville Look for next month's advertorial on the benefits of Peer and Social Skills during Early Brain Development. Nearly 90% of brain growth takes place during the ages of 0-5, when the foundation of a person's brain architecture is being built--a foundation upon which all later learning, behaviour, and health depend. Children develop concepts and skills early in life across a number of areas, including math. It's an important time to foster these skills in children to help them succeed in life. "From themoment they are born, babies begin to form ideas about math through everyday experiences and, most important, through interactions with trusted adults. Language--howwe talk with infants and toddlers about math ideas like more, empty, and full--matters." --Jan Greenberg, Young Children Math helps children problem solve, measure, and develop their own spatial awareness. Shapes and spatial relationships can be taught and learned. This includes recognizing and understanding the physical relationships between shapes and objects. Between the ages of 2 and 4, children build their foundation for understanding numbers and math language. Exposure to these concepts helps accelerate more sophisticated math learning in later years. Children are often introduced to abstract mathematical language prematurely. As a result, many children struggle to grasp their meaning. Early math is as important as early reading. Children must learn the concepts behind math symbols. In essence, children must understand how to read and speak math before they can engage in math. Understanding the concept of numbers, quantity, order, representation, counting, and correspondence is an important part of children's development during this time. PEAK AGES 2-4 Numbers andMath Language during Early Brain Development