Why is subitising important?
Subitising is important for children’s mathematical development for many reasons:
- It helps children to understand what numbers mean or how many ‘things’ a number refers to
- It helps learners with pattern recognition
- It helps children to not over-rely on counting
Subitising is an alternative maths strategy that is more efficient when dealing with smaller numbers. It helps children to see how numbers are made up.
For example, you can make the number eight using many pairs: 1 + 7, 2 + 6, 3 + 5 and 4 + 4. By separating and combining numbers through subitising, children lay the foundations for addition and subtraction.
Children also learn an important mathematical law through subitising: it doesn’t matter in what order you add numbers together, as you always get the same answer! For example, 2 + 3 = 5 and 3 + 2 = 5.