PENGARUH APE MONTESSORI COUNTING TOYS TERHADAP KEMAMPUAN BERHITUNG PADA ANAK USIA DINI DI TK BUNGONG SEULUPOK

Abstract

Early childhood education is a golden age period for stimulating cognitive development, including early numeracy skills as a foundation for academic readiness. The research problem is based on findings that children at TK Bungong Seulupok still experience difficulties in reciting numbers, recognizing number symbols, understanding number concepts, and performing simple counting. This study aims to determine the effect of using Montessori Counting Toys as an educational play tool on the counting ability of early childhood students at TK Bungong Seulupok. The research employed a quantitative approach with a quasi-experimental One Group Pretest–Posttest design, involving all 16 children in class B2 using total sampling. The results showed an improvement in children’s counting ability. In the pre-test, children were dominated by the categories of Not Yet Developed (63%) and Beginning to Develop (38%), while in the post-test all children reached the Developed as Expected category (100%). Furthermore, the paired samples t-test indicated a significant difference (Sig. 0.000 < 0.05). Therefore, it can be concluded that Montessori Counting Toys have a significant effect on improving early childhood counting ability.