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I have often wondered why we teach children at age 4-6 that the name of a three sided shape is a triangle, the name of a five sided shape is a pentagon and the name of a six sided shape is a hexagon, yet we neglect to say that a four sided shape is a quadrilateral. Many teachers just teach that it is a square or if they are being very daring, they call it a rectangle.
It is my belief that young children should be taught the correct mathematical vocabulary right form the start - otherwise it causes problems later. Having worked in primary and secondary schools, I have seen this confusion in children as old as 16 not knowing that a quadrilateral is a four sided shape. They can learn to distinguish the different types later.
Children should learn general names first, even in other subjects such as flower, animal, etc and later learn that there are many different types such as daisy, buttercup, frog, cat, dog, etc.
So with quadrilaterals; later on they will learn about the different types which include a square, rectangle, parallelogram, rhombus, kite, trapezium, etc. And with triangles; right angles, isosceles, equalateral, etc.
Maths is a logical subject and must be taught logically. This is just one example but I could talk about many more misuse of accurate mathematical vocabulary in the early years. Early years teachers shoud be taught to use the correct vocabulary right from the start, to avoid confusion later.
