In general, according to the Doman Institutes children lose the ability around age 3, which incidentally is when their right brain dominance begins to decrease. I have heard of one adult who is able to do this, I am sure there are more savants out there that can do it as well. If I had to take a guess, I would say a small percentage of children retain the ability but most do not. Rather, it is a springboard to begin further math study and a way to concretely convey that numerals are symbolic of quantity and they get to keep that very early, core understanding along after the skill fades. Some folks view very early math education in a way that is similar to learning math as a native language versus a secondary language.
These previous discussions may help shed some light for you. Best of luck!
http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-math/doman-math-success-mail-from-iahp/http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-math/phone-conversation-with-the-iahp/http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-math/2-year-old-lose-ability/
Digg
