Aboriginal children 'can count without numbers'

Gumatj Aboriginal children play by a fish net in Arnhem Land, the Northern Territory, Australia, December 2005. Australian Aboriginal children can count even without having words for numbers, according to a study by British and Australian experts.(AFP/File/Torsten Blackwood)

Australian Aboriginal children can count even without having words for numbers, according to a study by British and Australian experts released Tuesday

findings run counter to recently revived scientific claims that children can only count if they know the words for numbers

four to seven-year-olds from two Aboriginal communities have an "innate system" to count with, even though their languages only have normal words for one, two, few and many

suggests that we have an innate system for recognising and representing numerosities... and that the lack of a number vocabulary should not prevent us from doing numerical tasks