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An ability to understand numeracy, like literacy, is an important skill for children to participate successfully in school.
Numeracy also equips children for life beyond school, helping them in further study or training, personal pursuits and participation in the workforce and the wider community.
The prevalence of difficulties in numeracy or mathematics alone (when not found with other learning difficulties) is estimated at approximately one in every five cases of learning difficulties.
Although symptoms of difficulties in mathematics may appear as early as the first two years of school, numeracy problems are seldom diagnosed before the end of the second year or during the third year because sufficient formal mathematics instruction has usually not occurred until then in most schools.
Unfortunately research has found that there are significantly fewer courses to help children with numeracy problems than those struggling with literacy.
 Building on the successful model used in Reading for Life, Genworth Financial decided to become the foundation partner and provided seed funding for Learning Links to develop Counting for Life to provide assistance to students in Years 2 to 4 in Australia (and Years 3 to 5 in New Zealand). Employees of Genworth Financial have been Counting Buddies to children from Crown Street Public School in NSW as part of their commitment to the program.
Counting for Life covers three strands of the National Benchmarks - number sense; measurement and data sense; and spatial sense.
The special ingredient in Counting for Life is fun! There are old favourites like ‘snap’ and ‘concentration’ and some new exciting games like ‘shape head’ and ‘treasure hunt’.
The children participating in the trial of the program had some wonderful feedback at the end including, “It helps you to be so smart”; I’m not getting confused anymore and I know some more answers” and “When I see her every Thursday and she sees me she does maths and it helps me in my homework and stuff like that and it’s fun”.
For more information on Counting for Life contact Learning Links’ Head Office on (02) 8525 8222 or the Manager, Reading and Counting for Life (02) 9570 3266.
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