Watching kids learning to count is quite amusing. Older kids who have learnt to count up to say, twenty, have really gained alot of confidence in doing this quite well. With the occasional "I forgot what's next", or that very funny withdrawn look of nothingness, which is suppose to indicate to the person who is intently listening to their counting prowess, that "I forgot what's next, can you pleeeeeeeeease give me hint".
Then comes the really confident child that counts so fast (I expect that it's a form of showing off or more than likely "I'm real good, listen to what I can do"), that when they get up to about fifteen, sixteen, seventeen or there abouts, that the words become totally muddled and don't sound like much at all.
But usually with a bit of prompting, to slow down a little, that they can get it right, with ease.
I have spoken to many a parent about how well their child can count using fingers.
When the parent holds up a hand and displays a certain amount of fingers, for instance, lets say four, the child will count them, this age can be at about four to five years old, but at a younger age of anywhere between two and four, a child may just look at what is being held up and say the answer. At this stage most children will get it right nearly every time.
One thing I do talk to parents about is trying a little test, this involves holding up fingers and asking the child to say how many there are. The next part of the test (assuming that the child can continuously get the first part right), is to hold two fingers up on one hand and at the same time hold three fingers up on the other hand, placing the two hands side by side.
Of course all kids are different, and responses will vary, but in general a child of aound the age of two to three, maybe four, will respond with a two, three or the most common one that I found, is nothing at all.
This isn't to say that a child can't count, it's more likely to assume that the child has gotten very use to a parent or who ever, holding fingers up on one hand, and not actually counting but knowing to answer from memory. This goes without saying that the child isn't lazy, it's just that their logic is not even close to being the same as an adults logic.
Keep in mind though, that this is by no means a problem of any type what so ever, its just the way it is, that's how it was for me and for everybody else in the world I expect.
So why would I bother mentioning it, if it's not a problem you might ask ?
Well I'm glad you asked. Teaching a child different ways of doing the same task, may help to broaden their ability to work out every day problems that a child encounters. For example, a toy is stuck behind the leg of a chair and it won't come out, to an adult the answer is simple, move the toy in the opposite direction where there is lots of room to get it out. To the child it must be very frustrating that it won't come out, if shown different ways of doing things, it may just help, even if it helps just a little.