Welcome to the Give-a-Number Game!

This page will walk you and your child through the Give-a-Number Game, which scientists (and now you!) can use to find out what your child knows about numbers.

After you complete the game, you will receive personalized information about your child's current number knowledge and research-based suggestions for how to support their learning.

The game will take about 5-10 minutes to play with your child.

You will need:

• A 2-5 year old child
• A phone, tablet, or computer with internet access to follow along with these instructions
• About 10-15 small toys of a similar type (e.g., plastic fish, blocks)
• A plate or other shallow container that your child can place the toys into

Example materials:

This project is run through the Conceptual Development Lab at foundry10, an education research organization based in Seattle. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to the lab's Principal Investigator, Dominic Gibson (dominic@foundry10.org).

Confidentiality: No identifying information regarding individual children will be stored. Anonymized data collected through this game will be accessible to foundry10 researchers and may be shared with the wider research community.

Start Survey

Give-A-Number Game

Participant ID/Initials: Child Date of Birth: Email Address: Next

Game Overview

Setup:

In this game, you will present your child with a group of 10-15 objects and a shallow container. We use plastic fish and a blue plate that we pretend is a "pond where the fish like to go swimming," but you can use whatever you have.

Gameplay:

On each turn, the game will prompt you to ask your child to put a certain number of items on a plate. For example:

"Can you put 2 on the plate? Put 2 on the plate, and tell me when you’re all done."

After they put objects on the plate and say they are done, you will be prompted to say:

"Is that 2? Can you count and make sure? Is that 2?"

After you enter the initial and final amounts they gave and click "Submit", the game will prompt you to ask your child for a different number of items on the next turn, asking for more or fewer items in order to zero in on your child's current level of number understanding.

The game will automatically end when it has enough information to make a guess about your child's current level of number understanding.

Tips

• Feel free to make it silly or fun. When we use the plastic fish and "pond" we like to shake the plate at the end of each turn in order to make the fish "swim around", before making them all "jump out" and starting the next turn.


• If your child thinks they made a mistake (after you prompt, "Is that 2? Can you count to make sure? Is that 2?"), they may change their answer on their own or you may need to remove the objects from the plate and repeat the original question ("Can you put TWO on the plate?")

When you and your child are ready to play, hit 'Start Game'. Have fun!

Start Game

Give-A-Number Game

Initial Amount Given: Final Amount Given (if changed after child was prompted to check/count): Submit