Children\'s Mathematics

MOTHER: So when you’re lost you tell him that.

CHILD: Yeah.

MOTHER: He’ll say, ‘now we’ll take you home to see your mum’.

CHILD: He don’t (laughs).

MOTHER: He will if he knows where you live.

CHILD: He won’t. He say, ‘Where you live?’ I say, ‘I live down Fleet Flats’.

MOTHER: Yeah, but you gotta give him the number.

CHILD: Look! Number six.

MOTHER: He’ll take you to the wrong house. If you tell him number six. You have

to tell him the proper number.

CHILD: What?

MOTHER: You say, ‘Seventeen’.

At this point in the conversation, in addition to having forgotten the number of the

flat, Pauline appeared to be anxious about the idea of being lost and of being found

by a policeman.

CHILD: He (the policeman) don’t come today.

MOTHER: Well, you never know. ‘Cause you’re going down the beach in the

summer, aren’t you?

Pauline’s mother explained to her daughter that she might go to the beach with their

neighbour Irene.

MOTHER: And if you lose her?

CHILD: Yeah.

MOTHER: And you see a policeman.

CHILD: Yeah.

MOTHER: And the policeman comes up to you ‘cause someone’s bound to pick

you up on the beach, aren’t they?

CHILD: Um. I’m gonna see a policeman on the beach tomorrow.

(Tizard and Hughes, 1984, pp. 69–71)

Wider social perspective

• Pauline knows that her house number is important.


• She needs to know her house number to communicate this to others.


• House numbers have purpose (if you say ‘six’ the policeman will take you to the
  wrong house).

Cultural context of this family

• Safety is important: you need to know your address to keep safe.


• Mum thinks this is important enough to repeatedly ask Pauline her address.


• Mum gets anxious about addresses.

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