How to teach a child addition: one method, step by step

Why children get confused about addition

Picture a common scene: a parent sits with a five-year-old to practise adding. First they count on fingers. Then the parent remembers a trick with a number line. Then a video suggests drawing dots. By the end, the child has seen four methods in twenty minutes and trusts none of them.

The problem is not the child and not the methods. Each of those methods is fine. The problem is too many at once, in no particular order. Children build math like a staircase, one step on top of the other, and research on early math is clear about the order of those steps.

This guide gives you that order. It is the same order our free math games for kids follow, so you can practise at home with objects and let the game repeat the same idea.

The research behind one clear order

Three findings from early math research shape everything below.

1. A developmental progression. The US What Works Clearinghouse guide Teaching Math to Young Children recommends teaching number in a set order: recognising small amounts, counting, comparing, and only then adding and subtracting.
2. Concrete, then pictures, then numbers. Known as CRA (concrete, representational, abstract), this sequence has strong support in studies, including a 2025 meta-analysis, and it works for addition and subtraction with children who struggle as well as those who do not.
3. Counting, then reasoning, then knowing. Researchers such as Arthur Baroody describe three phases of learning facts: children first count, then derive answers from facts they know (doubles, make ten), and finally just know them.

Step 1: make sure counting is solid

Before adding, a child needs to count a group of objects correctly: one number for each object, and knowing that the last number tells how many. Ask “how many?” after counting. If your child counts again from one, they are not ready to add yet, and that is fine. Practise with toys and our counting games first.

Step 2: add by counting all

Put 3 red buttons and 2 blue buttons on the table. How many altogether? Your child counts all of them: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. This is the most concrete form of addition. Do it often with real objects, then with pictures of objects.

Step 3: see numbers as five and some more

Draw a ten frame, two rows of five boxes, and fill it with counters. Seven becomes a full row of five and two more. Children who see numbers this way stop counting from one. The ten frame game practises exactly this.

Step 4: count on from the bigger number

For 7 + 3, start at 7 and count on three: 8, 9, 10. Teach children to start with the bigger number: 2 + 7 is easier as 7 + 2. Counting on is the first real strategy, and it is much faster than counting all.

Step 5: learn the pairs that make 10

These are the number bonds: 1 and 9, 2 and 8, 3 and 7, 4 and 6, 5 and 5. Ten fingers are the perfect tool: show seven fingers, how many are down? Our guide to number bonds and ten frames has more games for this step.

Step 6: doubles and near doubles

Children remember doubles easily: 4 + 4 = 8, 6 + 6 = 12. Then 6 + 7 is simply 6 + 6 and one more. This is the first time children derive a new fact from one they know, the heart of the reasoning phase.

Step 7: make ten to add past 10

For 8 + 5: 8 needs 2 to make 10. Take 2 from the 5, and 3 are left. 10 + 3 = 13. Show it with two ten frames and counters first, moving two counters across. Once number bonds to 10 are automatic, this strategy handles every sum up to 20.

Step 8: practise little and often

Retrieval practice, answering from memory rather than re-reading, helps children remember facts, and spacing practice over several days helps them keep them. Five to ten minutes a day, a few times a week, is plenty. Mix old and new facts, and stop while it is still fun.

Tips if your child is stuck

• Go back one step. Being stuck on make ten usually means the bonds of 10 are not automatic yet.
• Bring the objects back. Pictures and counters are not cheating; they are the bridge to numbers.
• One method per week. Resist showing a new trick every day.
• Praise the strategy, not only the answer. “You started at 7 and counted on, great thinking.”

Play the steps as a game

The Math Games for Kids path follows these steps in order, with counters first and numbers later, ten short questions per level and a tip after every mistake. When addition feels easy, continue with subtraction games.