The purpose of this paper is to report .findings ofa study intended to investigate the effect of
instructional activities designed tofadlitate the development of visualisation strategies in young . children . . Utilising this intuitive capacity can provide a basis for developing number relations and
devising strategies to learn basic facts. Given practice children can develop a reasonably large
collection of set dot patferns thatthey recognise without counting. These patterns begin to be
related mentally to one another as they enhance part-part-whole relations. Organising the dots
into recognisable subgroups and patterns facilitates the ability fo recognise and give number
names to groupings, especially when the groupings are larger than five. , Instructional activities and materials that were used to facilitate the development of
visualisation strategies in two kindergarten classes over a one year period are described.
Stucfents' verbal and pictorial responses are analysed and the implicationsforfostering the
development of basicfacts in this manner are discussed.
The results indiCated that, with practice, children can become capable of mentally combining
and separatingpatferns, thus able to instantly 'recognise the whole and itsrelatedparts - a very . efficient strategyfor aiding the recall o/basic addition and subtraction facts.