When one-two-three beats two-one-three: Tracking the acquisition of the verbal number sequence

Learning how to count is a crucial step in cognitive development, which progressively allows for more elaborate numerical processing. The existing body of research consistently reports how children associate the verbal code with exact quantity. However, the early acquisition of this code, when the verbal numbers are encoded in long-term memory as a sequence of words, has rarely been examined. Using an incidental assessment method based on serial recall of number words presented in ordered versus non-ordered sequences (e.g., one-two-three vs. two-one-three), we tracked the progressive acquisition of the verbal number sequence in children aged 3-6 years. Results revealed evidence for verbal number sequence knowledge in the youngest children even before counting is fully mastered. Verbal numerical knowledge thus starts to be organized as a sequence in long-term memory already at the age of 3 years, and this numerical sequence knowledge is assessed in a sensitive manner by incidental rather than explicit measures of number knowledge.