As your child’s first teacher, you play an important role in helping develop their numeracy skills from an early age.

Numeracy skills give children an important start to their learning and development. They also help prepare them for daily life at all ages. For example, in handling money and problem solving.

Why Numeracy is important

Numeracy is more than numbers. For example, numeracy helps us:

• understand and use numbers and other mathematical ideas in everyday life

• recognise and use shape

• work out the chance of something happening

• understand the data we see in the media.

Numeracy is necessary for everyday living. From daily activities like telling the time, cooking and setting the table to more difficult tasks such as understanding mobile phone plans, planning a trip, reading a map and understanding timetables.

As children and young people move through life stages the everyday numeracy demands become more complex.

Employers see numeracy as important in the workplace. Research shows that higher numeracy skills lead to higher levels of health and wellbeing and other benefits such as better decision making and financial independence.

Department of Education 

Resources for teaching numeracy at home

 This interactive online guide:

• explains the difference between numeracy and mathematics

• helps your child to learn numeracy and mathematics at home

• identifies and talks about some common myths about maths

• suggests helpful activities you can do with your child.